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FEATURED ARTIST - January 2005
Frida Kahlo (1907 - 1954)Frida Kahlo began to paint in 1925 while recovering from an accident which left her permanently disabled. She underwent numerous operations during the course of her life, and many of her paintings directly relate to her experiences with physical pain. In 1928 Kahlo met Rivera and they married in 1929. They shared his faith in Communism and a passionate interest in the indigenous cultures of Mexico. Rivera encouraged Kahlo in her work, which he considered authentic, unspoiled and primitive.
Frida and Diego Rivera Although initially a self-taught painter, Kahlo was soon traveling in the most sophisticated artistic circles. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine that anyone who shared Rivera’s life could have remained artistically naive. Presumably because it generated respect and imparted credibility in the art world, Kahlo encouraged the myth of her own primitiveness—in part by adopting traditional Mexican dress. However, during her lifetime, Kahlo did not enjoy the same level of recognition as the great artists of Mexican muralism - Rivera, Orozco, and Siqueiros.
Over the last few decades Kahlo’s idiosyncratic and intensely autobiographical work is critically and monetarily as prized as that of her male peers, sometimes more so. Kahlo and Rivera divorced briefly in 1939, remarrying in 1940, and it was probably during this period that Rivera’s portrait of Kahlo was painted. She appears in several of Rivera’s murals, notably as a communist militant in his Corrido de la revoluciŰn proletaria, repartiendo armas (Ballad of the proletarian revolution, distributing arms).
Kahlo died in her sleep in 1954, apparently as the result of an embolism, though there was a suspicion among those close to her that she had found a way to commit suicide. Her last diary entry read: 'I hope the end is joyful - and I hope never to come back - Frida.'"
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