Essay On Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo, being physically handicapped, only produced about 200 paintings and sold a significantly low amount of works during her life. Despite all of this, Kahlo is seen as one of the largest icons in Mexican culture and continues to grow in popularity worldwide. In 1933, a painting appeared on a 34 cent postage stamp, in 2000, one of Frida’s self portraits sold for $5 million, and during November 2002, a biographical movie “Frida” was released (Smithsonian and Art Story). Frida Kahlo was born “Madalena Carmen Frida y Calderon” on July 6, 1907 in Coyoacan, Mexico. Her mother was a devout Catholic named “Matilde Calderon y Gonzalez” and her father was a painter from Germany named “Guillermo Kahlo”. Frida had 5 sisters and a brother who died as an infant. As a child, Kahlo was raised in the same house that she …show more content…
Kahlo was mostly influenced by traumatic experiences during her childhood and adulthood and her national identity. Personal tragedies were used in many of her paintings that are said to reveal “a disturbing and realistic type of art.” Paintings by Kahlo frequently included emotionally abusive husband Diego Rivera. Art historians mostly refer to Frida Kahlo as a surrealistic artist but Kahlo had always rejected the title claiming “They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn't. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.” Later in life Frida had to rely on painkillers that affected the quality of her work (The Art Story). During 1953, Lola Alvarez Bravo organized Frida’s first solo exhibition of Frida’s work. Frida had to attend the exhibition in her bed because her right leg was amputated above the knee. In 1954, Kahlo caught pneumonia and took part in a demonstration against North American intervention in Guatemala even after her doctor had strongly protested her