Frida Kahlo, Expressing Pain Through Art

Frida Kahlo is the most famous female Latin American artist of the 20th century. Born in Coyoacan, Mexico in 1907, she is best known for her vivid and self-expressive portraits. Kahlo's work will always be remembered for its pain and passion.

Although she is now known as an influential figure with an international reputation, Frida Kahlo was overlooked in life due to the success of her famous Mexican muralist husband, Diego Rivera, whom she married in 1929.

Frida Kahlo was a self-taught painter; she developed her passion and skill as an artist during her period of convalescence following serious injuries caused by a bus crash that left her immobilised during three months. She was only eight-teen years old when the accident happened, and it had serious consequences that impacted the rest of her life; she suffered extreme physical pain which influenced the formation of the complex psychological world that is reflected in her work.

Kahlo never tried to conceal or deny pain and suffering; instead, she felt the freedom of expressing it through her art. She painted around 55 artworks that were directly related to her life experiences. Her original and unique work was influenced and inspired by her emotional and physical pain; she suggested "I paint myself because I am the subject I know best".

She also insisted, "I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality"; and the truth is that her life was never easy; she contracted polio when she was six years old and thirty-five operations were needed after the bus accident.

Her marriage with Diego Rivera was frequently troubled by their bad-tempered temperaments and extramarital relationships; her mental well-being was also affected by the inability to have children as her uterus was seriously damaged during the bus accident; she was pregnant on three occasions but was never able to conceive; the abortion she suffered in 1932 deeply affected her delicate sensibility and inspired her to paint and express the suffering through "Frida y el aborto"

The year before her death in 1954, Kahlo was very ill and her right leg had to be amputated at the knee as a consequence of gangrene; she stated, "I was born a bitch. I was born a painter"; it could be argued that she was not born that way but life had made her through all the terrible experiences that she lived during her forty seven years; however, it was due to her suffering that Mexico and the rest of the world have been given the gift of her legacy of art: artwork painted with pain that will remain with us and be the inspiration for our humanity.

View the original article here