About boundless love, suffering and physical pain: “reading” self-portraits of Frida Kahlo. Frida Kahlo Paintings by Frida Kahlo with titles
The work of Frida Kahlo has always gravitated towards surrealism, but the relationship was ambiguous. The founder of surrealism Andre Breton, traveling in Mexico in 1938, was fascinated by the paintings of Kahlo, unequivocally ranked the painting of Frida Kahlo as surrealism. Thanks to the initiative of André Breton, exhibition of paintings by Frida Kahlo at the fashion gallery Julian Levy in New York, and Breton himself wrote the preface to the catalog of works, after the exhibition half of Frida's paintings were sold. André Breton proposed to arrange an exhibition in Paris, but when Frida Kahlo, who did not speak French, arrived in Paris, an unpleasant surprise awaited her - Breton did not bother to pick up the work of the Mexican artist from the customs service. The event was saved by Marcel Duchamp, the exhibition took place 6 weeks later. She did not become financially successful, but the reviews of critics were friendly, paintings by Frida Kahlo were praised by Picasso and Kandinsky, and one of them was bought by the Louvre. However, Frida Kahlo, quick-tempered by nature, was offended and did not hide her dislike for, “ crazy crazy surrealist sons of bitches". She abandoned surrealism not immediately, in January 1940. she took part with Diego Rivera) at the International Surrealist Exhibition, but later vehemently argued that she had never been a true surrealist. “ They thought I was a surrealist, but I wasn't. Frida Kahlo never painted dreams, I painted my reality," the artist said.
Frida became annoyed by the artificiality and pretense of surrealism. The noisy gatherings of the surrealists seemed childish to her, and once in her hearts she accused them of " such intellectual sons of bitches cleared the way for all the Hitlers and Mussolini".
Latin American art and paintings by Frida
Of particular importance in the work of Frida Kahlo are national motifs. Frida Kahlo knew the history of her homeland brilliantly. Frida had a special love for Mexican folk culture, collected old works of applied art, and even wore national costumes in everyday life. In the paintings of Frida Kahlo, the influence of Mexican folk art, the culture of the pre-Columbian civilizations of America is very strong. Her work is full of symbols and fetishes. The ideas of her paintings are encoded in the details, the background, the figures that appear next to Frida and the symbolism is revealed through national traditions and is closely connected with the Indian mythology of the pre-Hispanic period. And yet, in the painting of Frida, the influence of European painting is also noticeable.
Experts believe that the 1940s is the heyday of Frida Kahlo's creativity, the time of her most interesting and mature works.
From the biography of Frida Kahlo
At the age of 18, Frida Kahlo gets into a serious accident. She was on a bus that collided with a tram and was seriously injured as a result. Her life began agonizing months of immobile inactivity. It was at this time that she asked her father for a brush and paints. A special stretcher was made for Frida, which allowed her to write lying down. A large mirror was attached under the canopy of the bed so that Frida could see herself. She started with self-portraits. " I write myself because I spend a lot of time alone and because I am the topic I know best"- said Frida Kahlo.
Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera
At 22, Frida Kahlo became the wife of a famous Mexican artist. Diego Rivera. Diego Rivera was then 43 years old. The two artists were brought together not only by art, but also by common communist beliefs. Their stormy life together became a legend. Frida met Diego Rivera as a teenager, when he painted the walls of the school where Frida studied. After an injury and temporary forced imprisonment, Frida, who has written many paintings during this time, decides to show them to a recognized meter. The paintings made a great impression on Diego Rivera: “ The paintings of Frida Kahlo conveyed a life-filled sensuality, which was complemented by a merciless, but very sensitive, ability to observe. It was obvious to me that this girl was a born artist.».
Frida Kahlo died of pneumonia, a week after she celebrated her 47th birthday, on July 13, 1954. Farewell to Frida Kahlo took place in the "Bellas Artes" - the Palace of Fine Arts. On their last journey, Frida, along with Diego Rivera, was escorted by Mexican President Lazaro Cardenas, artists, writers - Siqueiros, Emma Hurtado, Victor Manuel Villaseñor and other famous figures of Mexico. In the last years of the 20th century, Frida Kahlo became the subject of a cult that is rationally inexplicable.
Frida Kahlo painting
self-portrait
death mask
Self-portrait with loose hair
What did the water give me?
self-portrait
self-portrait
Dream
little doe
self-portrait
Embrace of universal love, Earth, me, Diego and Coatl
Christina
In May 2014, one of Kahlo's self-portraits was put up for auction, tentatively valued at $7 million. By the will of fate, having failed to become a doctor, Frida Kahlo became a great artist. A lot of suffering fell on this beautiful Mexican woman. She painted while chained to a hospital bed. And always this strong woman aspired to victory.
Caloism.
Today, the shocking paintings of Frida Kahlo are valued very highly, in millions of dollars. The phenomenal popularity of Frida's work even got its name - caloism. Many celebrities of show business are considered to be his supporters. For example, in the house of the Madonna hangs a painting by Frida "My Birth", depicting the bloody head of the artist herself between the spread legs of her mother. According to this picture, Madonna evaluates people: “If someone does not like this picture, I lose all interest in this person. He will never be my friend." Another admirer of Kahlo - Salma Hayek, to play the main role in the film "Frida", became a producer, she herself persuaded Antonio Banderas and Edward Norton to act in film. They say that for this role, Salma even grew a mustache, shaving the fluff above her lip. Even during her lifetime, Frida Kahlo became a legend and an idol for many people. And only she knows what it cost her.
Frida Kahlo: "My Birth" Mexican artist. Childhood of Frida Kahlo. Drama.
Frida had three birthdays. According to the documents, she was born on July 6, 1907. But the artist herself assured that she was born at the same time as the Mexican Revolution, that is, in 1910. Frida's father was a photographer and often took his daughter to work, where he taught retouching.
Frida became disabled at the age of six. Due to polio, her right leg was deformed. The future great artist tried to hide this shortcoming by pulling extra stockings over her leg or wearing men's suits and long dresses. But at school, she was still teased by the offensive nickname “Frida the Bone Leg.” The girl was angry, but did not fall into despair: she went in for boxing, played football, swam. If it became unbearably sad, then Frida would go to the window, breathe on it and draw on the misted glass the door behind which her only best friend was waiting for her, a figment of the imagination of a lonely child. Only to this friend Frida could reveal her tormented soul. Together they dreamed, cried and laughed. Many years later, Frida Kahlo wrote in her diary: “I copied her movements when she danced, I talked to her about everything, and she knew everything about me. Every time I remember her, she resurrects in me.”
Little Frida Kahlo The third birth of Frida Kahlo.
On her own initiative, a fifteen-year-old girl entered a prestigious school to study medicine. For women of that time, this was not the most common decision - there were only 35 female students out of two thousand students. Frida immediately became popular. She even created her own closed student group Kachuchas, which included creative youth. The guys lost their heads at one glance at this black-eyed beauty with lush braids. It seemed like life was getting better. But it was an illusion. All her life Frida was connected with medicine, but not as a doctor, but as a patient. (You can visit the Frida Museum in ours)
Just a few scratches, 1935 On September 17, 1925, Frida Kahlo was returning from class by bus and had a serious accident. A metal rod pierced through the fragile body of a seventeen-year-old beauty, breaking her hips, crushing her pelvic bones and damaging her spine. The leg, withered by polio, was broken in eleven places, and the left foot was crushed. Bloodied Frida lay on the rails, and no one believed that she would survive. But the girl won again - she escaped from the clutches of death. This was her third birth.
Without hope, 1945 The new life became endlessly painful. Frida tried to drown out the terrible pains in her back and legs with drugs and alcohol, while destroying herself. For thirty years of life after the accident - thirty surgical operations. However, the most difficult were the first months of rehabilitation, when she was chained to a hospital bed and immobilized with a special corset. Only the hands remained free from plaster bandages. Frida asked her father to bring her brushes and paints. The father complied with his daughter's request and made her a special stretcher that allows her to draw while lying down. The only plot available within the hospital ward was the image of Frida herself in the mirror opposite the bed. Then Frida decided to paint self-portraits.
Self-portraits.
More than half of Frida Kahlo's works are self-portraits. Her work is a confession, striking in its frankness. With the help of a brush and paints, Frida encrypted her emotions, thoughts, hopes and sorrows. She is not smiling in any of the pictures.
Critics called her style of writing a mixture of propaganda poster elegance, bazaar simplicity and deep metaphysics. The surrealists considered the artist to be their own, but Frida objected: "The surrealists paint dreams, and I paint my own reality."
Already in the late 1930s, the Louvre bought the painting by the artist. In 1979, the painting "Tree of Hope" went under the hammer (the price of the auction reached fifteen thousand dollars). Twenty years later, one of Kahlo's self-portraits was bought for two hundred thousand dollars. After her death, her work began to sell for much more. An example of this is "Self-Portrait with a Monkey and a Parrot", sold to an unknown collector at the famous Sotheby's auction for $4.9 million.
Fulang Chang and me, 1937 Elephant and dove.
The first person who appreciated the undoubted talent of Frida Kahlo was the Mexican artist Diego Rivera - the only love of his life. Although Frida called her husband "the second accident" (she considered the first to be a car accident). Diego was twice as old and twice as big as little Frida, who was only 153 centimeters tall. For the first time, the artist saw him at school, where Rivera painted the walls. Even then, the girl told her friends that she would definitely marry him and give birth to children for him.
Diego Riviera and Frida Kahlo Diego Rivera was a very large man, like a kind giant. He often drew himself in the form of a pot-bellied frog with someone's heart in his paw, which characterized Diego as a desperate ladies' man. Oddly enough, women adored Diego. Frida Kahlo became his third wife. Together they looked very strange. Friends called this married couple "elephant and dove". Diego's character was disgusting. Already on the day of the wedding, drunk, he threw the first family scandal with firing a pistol.
Diego and Frida, 1931 Frida, in spite of everything, loved her husband very much, painted him all the time and dedicated poems to him.
Diego Rivera was a convinced communist, which also infected Frida. She even joined the Mexican Communist Party. The famous "blue house" of the spouses was located in the bohemian area of the Mexican capital. This house was visited by almost all famous artists, writers, musicians and politicians who came to Mexico. Leon Trotsky also visited the family couple, who fell in love with a young artist and even wrote lyrical letters to her. Diego and Frida had noisy parties, and their names did not leave the pages of the press. However, pompous and beautiful on the outside, from the inside, their life was not at all cloudless. Frida really wanted to have a baby, but after three miscarriages, this dream faded away.
Frida in the hospital Despite the fact that Frida adored her husband, it was said that she regularly cheated on him, and not only with men. Diego also did not keep marital fidelity. Unlike his wife, he did not hide his love affairs, which caused unbearable pain to the proud Frida. After Diego seduced Cristina Kahlo (Frida's younger sister) in 1939, the couple divorced.
Frida Kahlo and Diego Riviera After the divorce, Frida Kahlo continued to write. Her paintings were full of suffering and black humor. Frida and Diego could not live apart for a long time - a year later they got married again and did not part until the death of the artist.
Posthumous show.
This fragile, crippled, but not broken by fate woman lived only forty-seven years, thirty of which were filled with pain. During the attacks, she drank, swearing and selflessly drew.
Despite suffering, she continued to throw lively parties. Frida loved to joke - including on herself. Her first and last solo exhibition took place in 1953, just a year before the artist's death. And shortly before this significant event, Frida Kahlo's leg was amputated almost to the knee, as gangrene began. The doctors forbade her to get up, but she could not help but come to her triumph and insisted on a trip. Accompanied by an escort of motorcyclists, under the howling of sirens in an ambulance, Frida arrived at the exhibition. The doctors carried her in on a stretcher and laid her on a couch in the center of the room. There the woman spent the evening meeting and entertaining guests with jokes. She told reporters, “I am not sick, I am broken. But as long as I can hold a brush, I'm happy."
Frida writes from the comfort of her hospital bed This event shocked the whole world, but even more, Frida staged a posthumous show on July 13, 1954. When the artist's admirers came to the crematorium to say goodbye to Frida Kahlo, an unexpectedly strong gust of hot air lifted her body vertically, her hair curled into a halo, and her lips, as it seemed to everyone present, folded into a mocking smile. She stood like that for a while before sinking into the fire and forever turning to ashes.
The official cause of death of the great artist is pneumonia, but there were rumors of suicide. It was rumored that after the amputation of her leg, her pain became completely unbearable. Frida was again “imprisoned” in a corset, but the mutilated spine could not bear the load from the weight of the body. Frida, always fought for her life. She just couldn't give up willingly. She was a great woman, despite her terrible position.
Frida Kahlo de Rivera (07/06/1907, Mexico City, Mexico - 07/13/1954, Mexico City, Mexico) - full name Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo Calderon is a Mexican artist best known for her self-portraits.
Biography of Frida Kahlo.
Frida Kahlo was born into a large family of photographer, Guillermo Kahlo, with German roots. Her mother, Matilda Calderon, was a Mexican of Indian origin. At the age of 6, Frida falls ill with polio, after which there is a complication in the form of lameness for life.
In 1922, Frida entered one of the best Mexican schools called "Preparatory", where she studied medicine. At this school, she met her future husband, the already famous artist Diego Rivera.
In September 1925, an accident occurred that divided Frida Kahlo's life into "before" and "after": the bus the artist was traveling on collided with a tram. In this disaster, young Frida receives many severe injuries: a triple fracture of the spine, a fracture of the collarbone, several broken ribs, a fracture of the pelvis, a crushed right leg and foot. In that number, she received stab wounds with metal railings in the stomach. Frida underwent many operations, after which she lay in hospitals for months.
From this moment, her formation as an artist begins: being bedridden, Frida asks her father to give her brushes, paints and canvases. A stretcher was built on the bed so that one could write lying down, and a mirror was hung over the bed. So Frida became her own model and subject of study. Her first work was a self-portrait. Subsequently, Frida Kahlo only worked in this direction.
At the age of 21, Frida Kahlo joins the Mexican Communist Party. A year later, Diego Rivera proposes to the artist, and soon marries her. Despite the big difference in age, they were brought together by common interests in art, and common political views. In 1930, Diego received an invitation to work in the United States, to which he agreed, and Frida followed her husband to America for a long 4 years, where she began to keenly feel her Mexican roots, a special love for Mexican folk art and national costumes, which she began to wear everywhere.
In 1937, already in Mexico, Frida and Diego give shelter and asylum in their house to Lev Trotsky, who was expelled from the Soviet Union.
In 1939, Frida takes part in the Mexican exhibition in Paris, where she immediately becomes the center of attention, and the Louvre acquires her painting.
In the 1940s, the work of Frida Kahlo took part in many significant exhibitions. During this period, the artist's state of health worsened, and the prescribed treatment, which was designed to relieve pain, caused strong changes in mental and psychological terms.
In 1953, a personal exhibition of the artist was held, to which Frida arrived in a hospital bed, since at that time she could no longer walk. And after this event, an operation followed: gangrene began on the right leg, and it had to be amputated almost to the knee.
On July 13, 1954, Frida Kahlo died of pneumonia. There is much controversy over the cause of death, as no post-mortem autopsy was performed. There is an assumption that the death of a Mexican artist from life is associated with a drug overdose. The farewell ceremony with Frida was held at the Palace of Fine Arts, which was attended even by the President of Mexico, Lazaro Cardenas.
In 1955, the house in Coyoacan where Frida lived, the "Blue House", acquired the status of a museum.
The flamboyant Mexican artist Frida Kahlo is best known to the public for her emblematic self-portraits and depictions of Mexican and Amerindian cultures. Known for her strong and strong-willed character, as well as communist sentiments, Kahlo left an indelible mark not only in Mexican, but also in world painting.
The artist had a difficult fate: almost all her life she was haunted by numerous diseases, operations and unsuccessful treatment. So, at the age of six, Frida was bedridden with polio, as a result of which her right leg became thinner than her left and the girl remained lame for life. The father encouraged his daughter in every possible way, involving her in men's sports at that time - swimming, football and even wrestling. In many ways, this helped Frida to form a persistent, courageous character.
The 1925 event was a turning point in Frida's career as an artist. On September 17, she had an accident along with her fellow student and lover Alejandro Gomez Arias. As a result of the collision, Frida ended up in the Red Cross hospital with numerous fractures of the pelvis and spine. Serious injuries led to a difficult and painful recovery. It was at this time that she asked for paints and a brush: a mirror suspended under the canopy of the bed allowed the artist to see herself, and she began her creative path with self-portraits.
Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera
Being one of the few female students of the National Preparatory School, Frida already during her studies is fond of political discourse. At a more mature age, she even becomes a member of the Mexican Communist Party and the Young Communist League.
It was during her studies that Frida first met the then-famous mural painter Diego Rivera. Kahlo often watched Rivera as he worked on the Creation mural in the school auditorium. Some sources claim that Frida already then spoke about her desire to give birth to a child from the muralist.
Rivera encouraged Frida's creative work, but the union of two bright personalities was very unstable. Most of the time, Diego and Frida lived apart, settling in houses or apartments in the neighborhood. Frida was upset by her husband's numerous infidelities, in particular, Diego's connection with her younger sister Cristina hurt her. In response to family betrayal, Kahlo cut off her famous black curls and captured the resentment and pain suffered in the painting "Memory (Heart)".
Nevertheless, the sensual and passionate artist also had affairs on the side. Among her lovers are the famous American avant-garde sculptor of Japanese origin Isamu Noguchi, and the communist refugee Lev Trotsky, who took refuge in the Blue House (Casa Azul) of Frida in 1937. Kahlo was bisexual, so her romantic relationships with women are also known, for example, with the American pop artist Josephine Baker.
Despite betrayals and romances on both sides, Frida and Diego, even after parting in 1939, reunited again and remained spouses until the death of the artist.
The infidelity of her husband and the inability to give birth to a child are vividly drawn on the canvases of Kahlo. The embryos, fruits and flowers depicted in many of Frida's paintings symbolize precisely her inability to bear children, which was the cause of her extremely depressive states. So, the painting “Henry Ford Hospital” depicts a naked artist and symbols of her infertility – a fetus, a flower, damaged hip joints connected to her by bloody vein-like threads. At the New York exhibition in 1938, this painting was presented under the title "Lost Desire".
Features of creativity
The uniqueness of Frida's paintings lies in the fact that all her self-portraits are not limited to depicting only appearance. Each canvas is rich in details from the life of the artist: each depicted object is symbolic. It is also indicative how Frida depicted the connections between objects: for the most part, connections are blood vessels that feed the heart.
Each self-portrait contains clues to the meaning of what is depicted: the artist herself has always imagined herself serious, without a shadow of a smile on her face, but her feelings are expressed through the perception of the background, the color palette, objects surrounding Frida.
Already in 1932, more graphic and surrealistic elements are visible in the work of Kahlo. Frida herself was alien to far-fetched and fantastic plots: the artist expressed real suffering on her canvases. The connection with this trend was rather symbolic, since in the paintings of Frida one can detect the influence of pre-Colombian civilization, national Mexican motifs and symbols, as well as the theme of death. In 1938, fate pushed her against the founder of surrealism, Andre Breton, about the meeting with whom Frida herself spoke as follows: “I never thought that I was a surrealist until Andre Breton came to Mexico and told me about it.” Before meeting Breton, Frida's self-portraits were rarely perceived as something special, but the French poet saw surreal motifs on the canvases that made it possible to depict the artist's emotions and her unspoken pain. Thanks to this meeting, a successful exhibition of paintings by Kahlo in New York was held.
In 1939, after her divorce from Diego Rivera, Frida painted one of the most telling canvases, The Two Fridas. The picture depicts two natures of one person. One Frida is dressed in a white dress, which shows drops of blood flowing from her wounded heart; the dress of the second Frida is more brightly colored, and the heart is unharmed. Both Fridas are connected by blood vessels that feed both exposed hearts, a technique often used by the artist to convey mental pain. Frida in bright national dress is exactly the “Mexican Frida” that Diego loved, and the image of the artist in a Victorian wedding dress is a Europeanized version of the woman Diego abandoned. Frida holds her hand, emphasizing her loneliness.
Kahlo's paintings stick in the memory not only with images, but also with a bright, energetic palette. In her diary, Frida herself tried to explain the colors used in the creation of her paintings. So, green was associated with kind, warm light, magenta purple was associated with the Aztec past, yellow symbolized insanity, fear and illness, and blue symbolized the purity of love and energy.
Frida's legacy
In 1951, after more than 30 operations, the mentally and physically broken artist managed to endure the pain only thanks to painkillers. Already at that time it was difficult for her to draw as before, and Frida used medicines along with alcohol. Previously detailed images became more blurry, hastily drawn and careless. As a result of alcohol abuse and frequent psychological breakdowns, the death of the artist in 1954 gave rise to many rumors of suicide.
But with her death, Frida's fame only increased, and her beloved Blue House became a museum-gallery of paintings by Mexican artists. The feminist movement of the 1970s also revived interest in the personality of the artist, as many viewed Frida as an iconic figure of feminism. Hayden Herrera's Frida Kahlo Biography and the 2002 film Frida keep that interest alive.
Frida Kahlo self-portraits
More than half of Frida's works are self-portraits. She began to draw at the age of 18, after she got into a terrible accident. Her body was badly broken: the spine was damaged, the pelvic bones, collarbone, ribs were broken, there were eleven fractures on only one leg. Frida's life is merry in the balance, but the young girl was able to win, and in this, oddly enough, drawing helped her. Even in the hospital ward, a large mirror was placed in front of her and Frida drew herself.
In almost all self-portraits, Frida Kahlo portrayed herself as serious, gloomy, as if frozen and cold with a stern, impenetrable face, but all the emotions and emotional experiences of the artist can be felt in the details and figures surrounding her. Each of the paintings contains the feelings that Frida experienced at a certain point in time. With the help of a self-portrait, she seemed to be trying to understand herself, to reveal her inner world, to free herself from the passions raging inside her.
The artist was an amazing person with great willpower, who loves life, knows how to rejoice and love endlessly. A positive attitude towards the world around her and a surprisingly subtle sense of humor attracted a wide variety of people to her. Many sought to get into her "Blue House" with indigo-colored walls, to recharge with the optimism that the girl fully possessed.
Frida Kahlo put the strength of her character into every self-portrait she painted, all the emotional anguish experienced, the pain of loss and genuine willpower, she does not smile on any of them. The artist always portrays herself as strict and serious. Frida endured the betrayal of her beloved husband Diego Rivera very hard and painfully. The self-portraits written in that period of time are literally riddled with suffering and pain. However, despite all the trials of fate, the artist was able to leave behind more than two hundred paintings, each of which is unique.
Frida Kahlo de Rivera (Spanish: Frida Kahlo de Rivera), or Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo Calderon (Spanish: Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo Calderón; Coyoacan, Mexico City, July 6, 1907 - July 13, 1954), is a Mexican artist, best known for her self-portraits.
Mexican culture and the art of the peoples of pre-Columbian America had a noticeable influence on her work. The artistic style of Frida Kahlo is sometimes characterized as naïve art or folk art. The founder of surrealism, Andre Breton, ranked her among the surrealists.
She was in poor health all her life - she suffered from polio from the age of six, and also suffered a serious car accident as a teenager, after which she had to undergo numerous operations that affected her whole life. In 1929 she married the painter Diego Rivera and, like him, supported the Communist Party.
Frida Kahlo was born on July 6, 1907 in Coyoacan, a suburb of Mexico City (she later changed her birth year to 1910, the year of the Mexican Revolution). Her father was photographer Guillermo Kahlo, originally from Germany. According to the widely circulated version, based on Frida's claims, he was of Jewish origin, however, according to later research, he came from a German Lutheran family, whose roots can be traced back to the 16th century. Frida's mother, Matilda Calderon, was a Mexican with Indian roots. Frida Kahlo was the third child in the family. At the age of 6, she suffered from polio, after the illness, lameness remained for life, and her right leg became thinner than her left (which Kahlo hid all her life under long skirts). Such an early experience of the struggle for the right to a full life tempered the character of Frida.
Frida was engaged in boxing and other sports. At the age of 15, she entered the "Preparatory" (National Preparatory School), one of the best schools in Mexico, with the aim of studying medicine. Of the 2,000 students in this school, there were only 35 women. Frida immediately earned credibility by creating a closed group "Kachuchas" with eight other students. Her behavior was often called outrageous.
In the Preparatory, her first meeting took place with her future husband, the famous Mexican artist Diego Rivera, who from 1921 to 1923 worked at the Preparatory School on the painting "Creation".
At the age of eighteen, on September 17, 1925, Frida had a severe accident. The bus she was on collided with a tram. Frida received serious injuries: a triple fracture of the spine (in the lumbar region), a fracture of the collarbone, broken ribs, a triple fracture of the pelvis, eleven fractures of the bones of the right leg, a crushed and dislocated right foot, and a dislocated shoulder. In addition, her stomach and uterus were pierced with metal railings. She was bedridden for a year, and health problems remained for life. Subsequently, Frida had to undergo several dozen operations, not leaving hospitals for months.
It was after the tragedy that she first asked her father for brushes and paints. A special stretcher was made for Frida, which allowed her to write lying down. A large mirror was attached under the canopy of the bed so that she could see herself. The first picture was a self-portrait, which forever determined the main direction of creativity: “I paint myself because I spend a lot of time alone and because I am the topic that I know best.”
In 1928 she joined the Mexican Communist Party. In 1929, Diego Rivera married Frida. She was 22, he was 43. The spouses were brought together not only by art, but also by common political convictions - communist. Their stormy life together has become a legend. Many years later, Frida said: “There were two accidents in my life: one was when the bus crashed into a tram, the other was Diego.” In the 1930s, Frida lived for some time in the United States, where her husband worked. This forced long stay abroad, in a developed industrial country, made her feel national differences more acutely.
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