This renowned Mexican artist, daughter of a German-Jewish
photographer, Guillermo Kahlo, was born in Coyoacán,
in the southern part of Mexico City. At the age of sixteen
she suffered an accident with a truck and was seriously injured.
Kahlo required a lengthy recuperation period, which was when
she began painting. Three years later she took some of her
paintings to show Diego Riviera, who encouraged her to continue
painting. They were married in 1929.
Kahlo was greatly influenced by her husband’s work and
she used her art to express her mexican identity, blending
in many traditional and folkloric elements. Kahlo painted
many self portraits. Art was a way of portraying all the difficult
and painful moments of her life, a great part of which she
spent laying on a bed due to her injuries. Her pain was not
only physical but also psychological, due to her impossibility
to bear children.
She displayed her work at three art shows, one in New York
in 1938, one in Paris in 1939 and the last one in her home
town, Mexico City a year before her death in 1954. Her home
in Coyoacán is now a museum that bears her name.
The Broken Column (La columna rota)
The Two Fridas (Las dos Fridas)
Without Hope (Sin esperanza)
Thinking of Death (Pensando en la muerte)
Flower of Life (Flor de la vida)
