Today marks 70 years since the death of groundbreaking Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo.

Widely known for her vividly intense self-portraits, she is celebrated for her surreal elements and symbolic details.

Her life

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) achieved numerous artistic feats throughout her lifetime.

Born in 1907 in Coyoacán (just three years before the Mexican Revolution), Kahlo grew to be a curious and intuitive woman. As a medical student, she expressed a love for reading, leftist political views, and learned to colour photos by hand in her father's photographic studio. Tragically, in 1925, she suffered serious injuries from a traffic accident and was marred by medical ailments for the rest of her life. Her experiences in-and-out of hospital, as well as her two marriages to the muralist Diego Rivera (1886-1957) and affairs with fellow artists, such as the Hungarian photographer Nickolas Muray (1892-1965) and Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988), would inspire several of her emotive and self-reflective works. 

She went on to feature in a Vogue 1937 issue shot by Toni Frisell, and show her work at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, the MoMA and the Philadelphia Art Museum. During her career, Kahlo's talent was recognised by some of the foremost art institutions and creatives of the time. She exhibited at the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris, the Tate Gallery in London, and the Liljevalchs Konsthall (art museum) in Stockholm. In 1938, the father of Surrealism, André Breton (1896-1966) curated Kahlo's exhibition in art dealer Julien Levy's (1906-1981) New York gallery.

Only one year later, Breton invited Kahlo to exhibit in Paris and introduced her to his Surrealist circle of friends. The controversial sculptor and painter Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) also helped Kahlo to exhibit at the Galería Renou et Colle in the city of lights. Her self-portraits were later on display at the Art of This Century gallery in an exhibition of women artists, organised by art collector Peggy Guggenheim (1898-1979), in New York. 

By 1943, multiple spinal operations forced Kahlo to lie on her back in bed for long periods of time. This became her position for painting the exuberant still lifes of 1951 till her death in 1954. Determined not to be held back by her ailments, she attended the opening of her exhibition at Mexico's Galería de Arte Contemporáneo in an ambulance, and participated in the event while lying in a hospital bed.

Since Kahlo's death, gallery's have devoted exhibitions to several facets of her oeuvre: the menagerie of animals which often featured in her paintings, the dichotomy of hope and loss, her Mexican heritage, political views and exceptional technique. This reverence has immortalised Kahlo as a heroine who pursued her passion for art with enduring strength and determination.

Her artworks

Ixcuhintli [sic] Dog with Me, 1938 by Frida Kahlo
© D.R. Banco de México, fiduciario en el Fideicomiso Museos Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo

The Two Fridas, 1939 by Frida Kahlo © D.R. Banco de México, fiduciario en el Fideicomiso Museos Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo

The Two Fridas (1939) display the painter’s origins through attire: the European legacy and the Mexican tradition. This double self-portrait participated in the fourth International Surrealist Exhibition.

Self-Portrait with Monkey and Ribbon on Her Neck, 1940
© D.R. Banco de México, fiduciario en el Fideicomiso Museos Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo

Fulang-Chang and Caimito de Guayabal were Kahlo's favourite monkeys. The artist painted herself with her spider monkeys on various occasions. Here, the animal’s fur blurs with the painter’s hair and a red ribbon/lazo joins Kahlo to her pet.

Detail of Frida Kahlo, Self-portrait with monkeys 1943. The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection of
Mexican Art © 2016 Banco de Mexico Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico DF

The Broken Column, 1944 by Frida Kahlo © D.R. Banco de México, fiduciario en el Fideicomiso Museos Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo

The Broken Column (1944) is one of Kahlo's most well-known paintings. Here, she shows her physical vulnerability, symbolized by the nails piercing her skin; with the biggest near her heart. After multiple operations, her interior is upheld by a classical, but broken column. The solitary background contrasts with the vegetation and animals she paints in other self-portraits.