Frida Kahlo: Life of an Artist

A Life Altering Accident

In 1925 at the age of 18, a young Frida Kahlo had boarded a bus heading to Coyoacan with her friend, Alejandro Gomez Arias, after a long day of college classes. She had enrolled in college three years prior in 1922 with the goal of pursuing a career in medicine. Frida Kahlo had wanted to be in that specific field since she was a young child; most likely after she had contracted polio, which had left her with a crooked left foot. Her goals and dreams changed in a blink of an eye, though, as the bus rounded the corner and crashed at very high speeds into an oncoming electric trolley car. She is quoted saying, “The streetcar crushed the bus against the street corner… It was a strange crash, not violent but dull and slow, and it injured everyone, me much more seriously.” Frida had suffered many serious injuries that day, including a broken spinal column, ribs, collarbone, and pelvis. Many of these injuries were caused by a long metal rod that tore through her midsection. These injuries caused Frida to stay at the Red Cross Hospital. As she stayed there, she began to paint. Prior to this instance, she had not painted professionally and only had a few art lessons from a man named Fernando Fernandez. Her time in the hospital cultured her talent for painting. Four years later in 1929, Frida created a painting called, The Bus. While the painting has the intention of showing the different classes in Mexican society, it also shows Frida’s view before the bus accident on that day in 1925.

The Mishap That Is Love

 “I have suffered two serious accidents in my life, one in which a streetcar ran over me…. The other accident is Diego.” This is what Frida Kahlo is quoted saying after the divorce with her husband, Diego Rivera, in 1939 after their messy, inevitable divorce. They first met properly in 1928, after Diego had reviewed some of her botany illustrations. He saw extreme talent in Frida and admired her fiery personality, which may have led to him pursuing her despite the twenty-year age gap between the two. Diego also had a very strong personality and great artistic ability. When Frida’s parents were first told of the impending wedding, they were astounded. They compared the couple to an elephant marrying a dove. Frida’s and Diego’s marriage lasted ten years until 1929. Both Frida and Diego had multiple affairs throughout the ten-year span of their first marriage. Frida had numerous affairs with both men and women, while Diego had affairs with multiple women, one of the women being Fridas own sister. Shortly after the divorce, Frida completed the painting, The Two Fridas, in 1939. The painting represented the loneliness and desperation she felt from the separation with Diego. It also represented what she felt were her two personalities, one traditional and one modern, holding each other together and keeping the other one alive despite the depiction of one bleeding out, which may be the representation of her desperation at the time. Despite the affairs, the age gap, and the clashing of their two strong personalities, the two had great love for each other. The two eventually remarried in 1940 and would remain married until Frida died in 1954.

Viva La Vida

In 1954 at the age of 47, Frida was suffering from a long list of ailments that continuously affected her day-to-day life. The bus accident that she was in many years before had left her with permanent disabilities with her spinal column and pelvis. Frida underwent many operations to try to repair her disabilities with no luck. Eventually, in the early 1950s, Frida could no longer support herself long enough to sit or stand for long periods of time. Due to medical complications, in 1953 she had a foot amputated. This left her unable to walk. For the last remainder of Frida’s days, she was left primarily bed ridden. A few days before her death, Frida had put the finishing touches on her painting, Viva La Vida, Watermelons. On the central watermelon, an inscription can be seen that reads Viva La Vida, which means “Long live life.” This can be seen as ironic commentary on her pain filled life, both physically and emotionally. As she was in her family home, Frida wrote in her diary, "I hope the exit is joyful — and I hope never to return.” Frida Kahlo died on July 13th, 1954 in her family home due to supposed pulmonary embolism, though many suspect she may have died from an overdose.

Docent Story

Frida Kahlo was born in the summer of 1907. From a very young age Frida had medical conflicts, the first of which was when she contracted polio which left her with an odd turning foot. Later, at the age of 18, Frida was involved in a wreck that left her with permanent complications for the rest of her life. Not only did she suffer physically, but she also suffered emotionally as well; much of that emotional suffering due to the affairs that both she and her husband had. Frida was a strong willed and fiery woman, which is so well portrayed in many of her self-portraits, including the painting I was assigned for this project called The Broken Column. In this painting, Frida depicts herself with a powerful presence. She is looking directly at the viewer. Though the painting radiates a powerful presence, some things in the painting may at first contradict that. The nails piercing her skin, the tears streaming from her eyes, the rigid corset holding her up, the broken column shown as her backbone, her breasts bare, and the landscape in the back filled with ravines. Despite all this, she stands strong in her self-portrait. These things depicted are not a show of weakness, they are a show of strength and the trauma she had dealt with in her life. The nails can be interpreted as her long-term medical issues continuously causing her pain, the tears her emotional suffering from the ups and downs of her marriage, the rigid corset being her passion for painting holding her up, the broken column being her injury from the wreck, her bare breasts representing the vulnerability in her paintings, and the creviced landscape being the past behind her. In the painting, she is strong, looking forward at the viewer and at the future. The self-portraits, especially The Broken Column, help the viewer to connect the events in her life to the painting. She painted her own truth, which reflects this quote from Frida, “I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality.”

Work Citied

“Frida Kahlo Dies.” World History Project, https://worldhistoryproject.org/1954/7/13/frida-kahlo-dies.

“Frida Kahlo Timeline.” Frida Kahlo Timeline., https://www.fridakahlo.org/frida-kahlo-chronology.jsp.

“Frida Kahlo: 5 Facts You Might Not Know about Her Life.” TheCollector, 23 Feb. 2022, https://www.thecollector.com/5-facts-you-might-not-know-about-frida-kah….

Frida Kahlo's Husband, Diego Rivera, https://www.kahlo.org/husband/.

“Frida Kahlo's Other Accident.” Lisa's History Room, 30 Apr. 2014, https://lisawallerrogers.com/2009/05/27/frida-kahlos-other-accident/.

“Frida Kahlo's Paintings.” 100 Famous Paintings by Frida Kahlo, https://www.fridakahlo.org/frida-kahlo-paintings.jsp.

Mcgregor, Lennon. “What Art Techniques Did Frida Kahlo Use?” R4 DN, 1 Mar. 2021, https://r4dn.com/what-art-techniques-did-frida-kahlo-use/#:~:text=What%….

“Remember Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.” Widewalls, https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/diego-rivera-frida-kahlo.

Svoboda, Elizabeth. “How a Devastating Bus Accident Changed Frida Kahlo's Life and Inspired Her Art.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 1 Mar. 2022, https://www.history.com/news/frida-kahlo-bus-accident-art.