Frida Kahlo is an emblematic figure of twentieth-century Mexican art, known as much for her singular work as for her life marked by physical and emotional pain. Born in 1907 in Coyoacán, a district of Mexico City, she was initially destined for a career in medicine, but a serious bus accident at the age of 18 turned her life upside down. Bedridden for many months, she began to paint to relieve her boredom and express her suffering. This traumatic experience became a recurring theme in her work, which combines autobiography, physica... Voir plus >
Frida Kahlo is an emblematic figure of twentieth-century Mexican art, known as much for her singular work as for her life marked by physical and emotional pain. Born in 1907 in Coyoacán, a district of Mexico City, she was initially destined for a career in medicine, but a serious bus accident at the age of 18 turned her life upside down. Bedridden for many months, she began to paint to relieve her boredom and express her suffering. This traumatic experience became a recurring theme in her work, which combines autobiography, physical pain and powerful symbolism.
Frida Kahlo is often associated with Surrealism, although she herself rejected this label, claiming that she was not painting dreams, but her own reality. Her artistic style is unique, influenced by Mexican folk painting, ex-votos, pre-Columbian art and indigenous culture. She frequently incorporates strong symbolic elements, representations of her suffering body, as well as plant, animal and religious motifs.
She moved in the artistic and intellectual circles of her time, notably with her husband, the muralist Diego Rivera, whom she married in 1929. Their passionate but tumultuous relationship had a mutual influence on their artistic output. Frida also rubbed shoulders with international figures such as André Breton, Léon Trotski and Pablo Picasso, who admired her work. Despite limited recognition during her lifetime, she exhibited in New York, Paris and Mexico City, attracting the interest of critics and intellectuals.
Her most famous works include The Two Fridas, in which she depicts herself as a double, wearing both a European dress and a traditional Mexican costume, symbolizing her cultural and emotional duality. The Broken Column shows her split body, held together by a corset, illustrating her chronic pain. Diego in my thoughts, Self-portrait with monkeys and The Henry Ford Hospital are also among her outstanding paintings, combining symbolism, autobiographical elements and identity claims.
Today, Frida Kahlo is a global icon, celebrated as much for her work as for her feminist commitment and her assertion of her identity. Her deeply personal art continues to move us with its sincerity, its visual power and its ability to capture in images both the intimate and the universal.
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