The Mexican painter Frida Kahlo created striking, often shocking, images that reflected her turbulent life. She did not originally plan to become an artist. A polio survivor, at 15, Kahlo entered the premedical programme at the National Preparatory School in Mexico City. However, this training ended three years later, when Kahlo was gravely hurt in a bus accident. During her convalescence, Kahlo had begun to paint with oils.
Her pictures, mostly self-portraits and still lives, were filled with the bright colours and flattened forms of the Mexican folk art she loved. At 21, Kahlo fell in love with the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, and married him. The couple travelled to the United States and France, where Kahlo met luminaries from the worlds of art and politics. She had her first solo exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York City in 1938.
During her lifetime, Frida created some 200 paintings, drawings, and sketches related to her experiences in life, physical and emotional pain and her turbulent relationship with Diego. She produced 143 paintings, 55 of which are self-portraits.
Perhaps best known for these self-portraits, Kahlo’s work is remembered for its ‘pain and passion’, and its intense, vibrant colours. Mexican culture and Amerindian cultural tradition figure prominently in her work, which has sometimes been characterized as naive art, or folk art.