Raven hair tied in a knot, dark eyebrows drawn together and red lipstick. These are the distinguishing marks of Frida Kahlo, a recognized Mexican painter and at the same time an unrestrained and fun woman who suffered pain all her life, but also broke (not only) gender stereotypes. Today, she is an icon of feminism and the LGBT community.
She wanted to be a doctor, but a tragic accident ruined her dream. The bus in which she was traveling from school as a 19-year-old crashed and her life was in danger. She won it and started painting.
The artist Diego Rivera, who was 20 years her senior, became her destined man, and her paintings received recognition in the USA, then in Europe, and finally in her native Mexico.
Her life was not bound by conventions, but was destroyed by pain and constant operations. She loved men and women, underwent dozens of procedures and was an active communist.
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The dream of medicine was thwarted by an accident
Frida Kahlo was born in 1907 in the suburbs of Mexico City, and she was given both the beauty that charmed many men and women, as well as spontaneity and unrestrainedness. That is, the qualities that helped her cope with the consequences of a tragic accident and thanks to which she never allowed herself to be bound by conventions. She lived her life as she wanted, with whom she wanted.
At the age of nineteen, she dreamed of becoming a doctor and had heated political and philosophical debates with her friends. But then she almost didn’t survive a bus accident – an iron bar went through her pelvis, her spine was broken, her leg was broken 11 times and she was in danger of never getting out of her wheelchair again.
She could have felt sorry for herself during the months she was bedridden in a cast, but she used her pain and turned it into images.
As they say that everything bad is good for something, so Frida started to paint on the bed – with her father’s oil paints on an easel specially prepared by her mother, on which she put a mirror. And she began to create her iconic self-portraits, of which five dozen were eventually created.
The relationship between the elephant and the lovebird
A completely new story of Frida Kahlo has begun to be written. She became an active communist and an admirer of Marxism, at one of the many exuberant party parties she also met her destined man, the famous painter Diego Rivera. He was charmed by both her beauty and wildness, but he also immediately recognized her genius and talent.
They soon got married, the age difference and the fact that they were called an elephant and a lovebird as a couple were not an obstacle for them. They were each other’s inspiration and support, but at the same time loyalty never meant anything to them. He had constant problems with his models, he even had an affair with Frida’s closest person, her sister.
She cheated on him too, with men and women. Even the Russian emigrant Leo Trotsky was her lover. She was always able to transfer unfettered life, health problems and the pain caused by repeated abortions to the screen.
She waited for success at home
She first achieved great success in the USA, where she and Diego moved for a while. Later, Paris fell at her feet when the Louvre Museum bought her painting The Frame.
After returning from Europe, she discovered that Diego had filed for divorce, and although it broke her, it is said to be her strongest period artistically. For example, the self-portrait Two Fridas is worth mentioning.
She ended up stepping into the same river a second time – marrying the love of her life a second time and they continued to cheat on each other. Frida suffered more and more pain, wore corsets, but nothing helped. Her flame seemed to be dying out and Frida was running out of strength. However, a life triumph awaited her.
In April 1953, she had her first exhibition in her native country and received recognition, so she was no longer perceived as just Diego’s wife. She allowed herself to be brought to the exhibition on a bed, because the doctors ordered her to rest and she idiosyncraticly bypassed their instructions. As if she sensed that her time was running out and there would be no more exhibition.
She died a year later. She managed to write in her diary that she wished to leave joyfully and never to return. Little did she know that she would become an icon of the feminist movement as well as the LGBT community and a role model for people with disabilities, thus ensuring her immortality.
Source: vlasta.cz, The unconventional life of Frida Kahlo: Infidelity, a lot of pain, but also strength, novinky.cz, blesk.cz
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