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Female Artists: Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo, 1907-1954, (Surrealism, Magic Realism, Naïve) 

Kahlo’s father was German and her mother had Spanish and indigenous Mexican roots. This mixed-race background created an open minded individual who established an art-style that reflected this. She had a troubled childhood, plagued by illness. Most significantly, she contracted polio at the age of six which affected her growth and also left her bed-ridden for half a year. She pursued several sports in order to overcome some of these problems and this helped her to at least boost her confidence and become more extrovert. 

When she was 18, she was involved in a serious traffic accident which left her damaged, physically, for the rest of her life. She suffered multiple injuries and required a long period of rehabilitation before she could live a relatively normal life. This serious setback to Kahlo proved to be the catalyst to her new life, as she took up painting for the first time in order to reduce her frustrations at her difficult situation. It also kept her occupied whilst bed-bound and helped her to recover more quickly. 

Diego Rivera, the famous Mexican muralist, was known to Kahlo from her school days and they re-connected later on as she asked for his advice on her work. This teacher-pupil relationship flourished into a romantic connection which later led to marriage. Kahlo then travelled frequently in order to accompany Rivera on his work-based trips to San Francisco, New York and Detroit. 

She is known for her many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Also taking inspiration from the country's popular culture, she employed a naïve folk-art style to explore questions of identity, post-colonialism, gender, class, and race in Mexican society. Her paintings often had strong autobiographical elements and mixed realism with fantasy, incorporating her experience of chronic pain and the numerous health problems related to a failed pregnancy. 

The Wounded Deer, 1946

 

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