2. Birthand
childhood
Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón was born on
July 6th, 1907 in Coyoacán,a municipality (
עירייה
) in
Mexico City, the capital of Mexico.
Kahlo’s dad was a famous German-Mexican photographer.
Kahlo had German, indigenous (Native Mexican) and
Spanish roots. She also had three other siblings; Matilde,
Adriana and Cristina.
Kahlo used to describe her childhood home as “very, very
sad”. Both of her parents were often very sick, and their
marriage was always devoid of love.
Her relationship with her mother was always tense.
Although she was very kind, she was also very cruel and
was fanatically religious.
3. At the age of 6, she contracted polio, which made
her right leg shorter and thinner than the left.
The illness forced her to be cut off from her friends
for months. Later on she was bullied.
While the experience made her feel lonely and
reclusive, it made her father’s favorite due to their
shared experience of living with a disability (her
father used to have epileptic seizures).
Frida Kahlo at age 6
4. Guillermo’s
encouragement
Frida Kahlo credited her father for
making her childhood “marvelous”. He
taught her about hard work and
kindness.
He also taught her about literatura,
nature and philosophy, and encouraged
Kahlo to play sports to regain her
strength, despite that physical exercise
was seen as unsuitable for girls.
He taught Kahlo photography, and she
helped him to retouch, develop and color
photographs.
Frida Kahlo’s father, Guillermo Kahlo
5. Studies and
abuse
Due to polio, she began school later than her peers. Along
with her younger sister Cristina, she attended the local
kindergarten and primary school in Coyoacán and was
homeschooled for the fifth and sixth grades.
While Cristina followed their sisters into a conventschool
()מנזר, Kahlo was enrolled in a German school due to their
father's wishes. She was soon expelled for disobedience
and was sent to a vocational school (מקצועי ספר )בית.
Her stay at the school was brief, as she was sexually
abused by a female teacher.
6. Escuela
Nacional
Preparatoria
In 1922, Kahlo was accepted to the elite National
PreparatorySchool, where she focused on natural
sciences with the aim of becoming a doctor.
She performed well academically, read a lot, and became
"deeply immersed and seriously committed to Mexican
culture, political activism and issues of social justice“.
The school promoted indigenismo, a new sense of
Mexican identity that took pride in the country's
indigenous heritage and seeked to rid itself of the colonial
mindset of Europeas superior to Mexico.
This influenced Frida Kahlo to form with her classmates an
informal group. They were rebellious and against
everything conservativeand pulled pranks, staged plays
(מבוימות )הצגות, and debated philosophy.
7. Bus accident
On 17 September1925, Kahlo and her boyfriend,
Alejandro Gómez Arias, were on their way home from
school when the wooden bus they were riding collided
with a streetcar. The accident killed several people and
fractured Kahlo's ribs, both her legs and her collarbone. An
iron handrail impaled her through her pelvis, fracturing
the pelvic bone.
The accident ended Kahlo's dreams of becoming a doctor
and caused her pain and illness for the rest of her life. One
of her friends described her as “living dying”. Kahlo's bed
rest was over by late 1927, and she began socializing with
her old school friends, who werenow at university and
involved in student politics.
8. Diego Rivera
When she was 21, she met the famous painter Diego
Rivera, who was 20 years older than her. They met at a
party. Shortly after their introduction, Kahlo asked him
to judge whether her paintings showed enough talent
for her to pursue a career as an artist
Rivera recalled being impressed by her works, stating
that they showed, "an unusual energy of expression,
precise delineation of character” and it was obvious to
him that she was an authentic artist
Diego Rivera
9. Marriage
Kahlo soon began a relationship with Rivera, despite
their age gap.
Kahlo and Rivera were married in a civil ceremony at
the town hall of Coyoacán on 21 August 1929.
Kahlo’s mother disapproved their marriage due to
Rivera’s physical appearance, who was tall and
overweight, compared to Kahlo’s size, who was tiny
and fragile.
Regardless,her father approved Rivera, who was
wealthy and therefore able to support Kahlo, who
could not work and had to receive expensive medical
treatments.
The couple had multiple affairs separately while still
married. They also divorced and reconciled again.
10. Last years and
death
While Kahlo was gaining recognition in her home country,
her health continued to decline. In 1950, Kahlo spent most
of the year in Hospital ABC in Mexico City, where she
underwenta new bone graft surgery (עצם )השתלת on her
spine (השדרה )עמוד.
It caused a difficult infection and needed several follow-up
surgeries.
After being discharged, she needed to use a wheelchair
and crutches()קביים to move.
Kahlo's right leg was amputated at the knee due to
gangrene (ק ֶ
ֶמנ) in 1953. She became severely depressed
and anxious, and her dependency on painkillers increased.
11. Last years and
death
In her last days, Kahlo was mostly bedridden with
pneumonia.
On the night of 12 July 1954, Kahlo had a high fever and
was in extreme pain. The next day her nursefound her
dead in her bed. Kahlo was 47 years old.
The official cause of death was pulmonary embolism
(ריאתי )תסחיף, although no autopsy (המוות שלאחר )נתיחה
was performed.
The nurse, who counted Kahlo's painkillers to monitor her
drug use, stated that Kahlo had taken an overdose the
night she died. She had been prescribed a maximum dose
of seven pills but had taken eleven.
13. Early career
Kahlo enjoyed art from an early age, receiving drawing
instruction from her father's friend,graphic artist
FernandoFernándezand filling her notebookswith
sketches. Later on in high school she would work for
Fernándezas a stenographer. He was very impressed by
her talent, although she wasn’t considering art as a career
at that time.
After her bus accident in 1927, she considered a career as
a medical illustrator, which would combine her interests in
science and art.
Painting became a way for Kahlo to explorequestions of
identity and existence.
Most of the paintings Kahlo made during this time were
portraits of herself, her sisters, and school friends.
קצרנות
משפרת אשר כתיבה שיטת היא
הכתיבה מהירות את ניכרת במידה
,
וסימנים בסמלים שימוש באמצעות
14. Work in the
United States
In 1930, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera moved to San Francisco
due to his work. Kahlo met many American artists.
The six months spent in San Francisco were very productive
for Kahlo. She developed a folk art style she had adopted
back in Mexico.
In April 1932, they headed to Detroit, where Rivera had been
commissioned to paint murals for the Detroit Institute of Arts.
The year spent in Detroit was a difficult time for Kahlo. She
disliked having to socialize with capitalists and was angered
that many of the hotels in Detroit refused to accept Jewish
guests.
In December 1933, Kahlo and Rivera returned to Mexico City.
15. International
recognition
In 1937 and 1938, Kahlo's artistic career was extremely
productive,following her divorceand then reconciliation
with Rivera. She painted more "than she had done in all
her eight previousyears of marriage“.
The National AutonomousUniversity of Mexico exhibited
some of her paintings in early 1938.
A famous French surrealist painter was impressed by
Kahlo. He not only promised to arrange for her paintings
to be exhibited in Paris but also wrote to his friend and art
dealer, Julien Levy,who invited her to hold her first solo
exhibition at his gallery in Manhattan.
In March 1939, the Louvrepurchased The Frame, making
her the first Mexican artist to be featured in their
collection.
16. Symbolism
After her periods of depression and miscarriages in her life
she gave herself into pets around her. She liked to use
monkeys,hummingbirds, dogs and cats in her artwork.
Many of Kahlo's paintings are concerned with medical
imagery, which is presented in terms of pain and hurt,
featuring Kahlo bleeding and displaying her open wounds.
She did not use events fromher life only to show her
subjective experience,but to raise questions about
Mexican society and the identity within it, particularly
gender,race, and social class.
18. A feminist icon
She defied gender stereotypes.
Frida smoked, boxed, won tequila challenges against men,
and dressed like a man in a family portrait, contrasting to her
mother and sisters, who wore dresses.
She refused to alter her ‘masculine’ features, including her
mono-brow and faint moustache, and exaggerated these
features in herself portraits
However she still embraced her femininity, wearing colorful
dresses and decorating her hair with braids and flowers.
She also showed discomfort with patriarchy and male
chauvinism
19. A feminist icon
She painted real women and real experiences.
Her subject matter included abortion, miscarriage, birth
and breastfeeding, among other things, often seen as
taboo and like many female experiences altogether
ignored.
20. An LGBTQ+
icon
Frida had multiple affairs with both men and women
throughouther marriage to Diego Rivera. She made no
apologies or excuses for her sexual choices, a bold act for
her time. One of her notable affairs was with entertainer
Josephine Baker, who matched Kahlo’s boldness and
creativity.
Nowadays she is considered a very influential LGBTQ+
icon.
In 2014 Kahlo was one of the inaugural honoreesin the
Rainbow Honor Walk, a walk of fame in San Francisco's
Castro neighborhood (one of the first gay neighbourhoods
of the U.S.) noting LGBTQ people who have "made
significant contributions in their fields."
21. A political icon
She was politicallyactive.
Although she was born in Mexico, a country of tradition
and Catholicism, Frida was an atheist and a proud
communist.
Kahlo had strong political convictionsthat were inspired
by Marxist ideology. She wrote in her diary: “I’m convinced
of my disagreement with the counterrevolution—
imperialism, fascism, religion, stupidity and capitalism. I
wish to cooperate with the revolution in transforming the
world into a classless one, so that we can attain a better
rhythm for the oppressed classes.”
"
הנגדית המהפכה עם שלי במחלוקת משוכנעת אני
-
אימפריאליזם
,
פשיזם
,
דת
,
טיפשות
,
מכלול וכל קפיטליזם
הבורגניים הטריקים
.
המהפכה עם פעולה לשתף מבקשת אני
סוציו מעמדות העולם בהפיכת
-
כלכליות
,
קצב להשיג שנוכל בכדי
המדוכאים המעמדות עבור יותר טוב
".
