Kahlo's bus accident
On September 17, 1925, Frida Kahlo was involved in a bus accident that changed her life forever. On this particular day, Kahlo was returning home with her first love Alejandro Arias. They bith boarded this crowded bus and took seats towards the back. Then, within seconds later, an electric streetcar crashed into the bus that Kahlo and Arias were on. Several passengers died instantly, but Kahlo had suffered severe injuries with an iron handrail impaling her through her pelvis. Kahlo’s pelvic bone had been fractured. The rail punctured her abdomen and uterus, her spine was broken in three places, her right leg in 11 places. Her shoulder was dislocated, her collarbone was broken and later on doctors discovered that three additional vertebrae had been broken as well. The painting that I chose to represent this event is a painting by Frida Kahlo herself titled Without Hope. The painting shows Kahlo being bedridden and being fed from this odd-looking horn. The horn is filled with death, and she is being forced fed because it looks as if her arms may be pinned down. Her facial expression doesn’t show any sign of hope. Instead, her eyes look as if they are asking the viewer to end her suffering. It is important to note that on the back of this painting Kahlo wrote down the following message: “Not the least hope remains to me…Everything moves in time with what the belly contains.”
Kahlo Frida. Without Hope. 1945