Painting - Frida Kahlo's 70th Death Anniversary: Wounded Heroine of Art
"Viva la Vida": Long live life. With this message, Frida Kahlo signed a painting of watermelons only a few days before her death. In commemoration of her 70th death anniversary, Mexico now honors the legacy of the iconic painter with an exhibition, lectures, and artistic activities. Kahlo passed away on July 13, 1954, at the age of 47, after a life filled with physical and emotional pain.
"We want to celebrate her life and her legacy," says Perla Labarthe, director of the Frida Kahlo Museum, also known as the Blue House, to the German Press Agency in Mexico City. The visual power of her works and the way she transformed feelings and experiences into art made Kahlo a fascinating artist. Moreover, she was an honest artist and created her own identity - that resonates with people today.
Injured artist and modern cult figure
According to the official death certificate, the painter succumbed to a lung infection. At the age of six, Kahlo, the daughter of a German photographer Carl Wilhelm Kahlo and a Mexican woman, was diagnosed with polio. At 18, she was severely injured in a bus accident. A metal rod pierced her body, her spine broke in three places. After the accident, Kahlo had to lie in bed almost for a year and began painting.
The dramatic self-portraits like "The Broken Column" are a trademark of Kahlo. For years, she wore corsets that she painted. Her self-portraits with a mustache and overgrown eyebrow arches adorn various souvenirs. She is a cult figure and considered a pioneer of feminism.
Madonna, the US pop singer, and Salma Hayek, the Hollywood actress and star of the 2002 film "Frida," are among Kahlo's fans. Fashion designers draw inspiration from the wife of the muralist Diego Rivera (1886-1957). A Barbie doll was even dedicated to her.
Exhibition "Frida without Borders"
The Atelierhaus Museum Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Mexico City now displays the exhibition "Frida without Borders." Letters, medical records, and more than 80 photos offer insights into the relationship between the painter and her injured body and her doctors. Kahlo underwent approximately 30 surgeries. One of her legs was amputated below the knee.
During the Kahlo Month, the Blue House organizes activities around the painter's birthday on July 6, 1907, and her death day. The program includes the new documentary film "Frida" (USA/Mexico) by Regisseur Carla Gutierrez. In it, the biography of the communist and bisexual painter is told with her own words and animated paintings.
Saved by painting
Kahlo lived in the Blue House in Coyoacán for 36 years, now a popular tourist attraction. The museum exhibits personal belongings of the painter, such as her partially indigenous clothing, which she deliberately constructed to express her identity, numerous letters, an illustrated diary, and the urn with her ashes.
In a text currently on display, the painter describes her approach to art: "I have never followed any school or been influenced by anyone," she writes. "I expected nothing from my work except the satisfaction that painting itself gave me." Through her paintings, she expressed perceptions and feelings that she would otherwise not have been able to convey.
Kahlo married the 21 years older Rivera twice. The nationalistic painter was already famous and known as a womanizer when they gave each other their first words in 1929. Kahlo was then 22 years old. After ten turbulent marriage years, the pair divorced and remarried a year later. Kahlo also had affairs, such as with the Russian revolutionary Leo Trotsky.
The relationship with Rivera and Kahlo's miscarriages influenced her work. The self-portrait "Diego y yo" (Diego and I) was sold at Sotheby's auction house in New York for $34.9 million (approximately €32 Mio) in 2021. It is the most expensive painting by a Latin American artist and shows a weeping Frida with Rivera's face on her forehead.
Despite all the difficulties, Kahlo loved life. However, the physical pains were unbearable in the end. Emotionally, she was also down. In her last diary entry, the painter wrote: "I am looking forward to the departure and hope never to return again."
- The exhibition in Mexico City, marking Frida Kahlo's 70th death anniversary, attracts a multitude of people, as Perla Labarthe, the museum director, shares with the German Press Agency.
- The Blue House, known as Frida Kahlo's Museum in Mexico City, is a popular tourist attraction, housing her personal belongings, including paintings and clothing that reflect her identity.
- At the Atelierhaus Museum Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, an exhibition titled "Frida without Borders" showcases letters, medical records, and photos, offering insights into Kahlo's relationship with her body and doctors.
- The Emma Stone-led 2002 film "Frida" celebrates Kahlo's life as a communist and bisexual painter, using her words and animated paintings in its biographical narrative.
- In Mexico City, the Kahlo Month organizes activities around her birthday on July 6th and death day, including a program featuring the new documentary film "Frida" by Regisseur Carla Gutierrez.
- Diego Rivera, the famous muralist, was Kahlo's husband twice, and their tumultuous marriage and Kahlo's miscarriages significantly influenced her artwork, as reflected in her self-portrait "Diego y yo".
