Frida Kahlo's Life Story
It is not possible to confuse the works of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo with the paintings of another painter. Kahlo's works were mostly autobiographical. She explained the reason for this: "I spend a lot of time on myself and I am a subject that I know better than anything else." The sad story of pain, love, terrible despair and holding on to a very weak hope… We learned a lot from Frida Kahlo's experience as an artist and human.
The misfortunes and oddities in Frida Kahlo's life began at a very early age. Although she was born in 1907, she changed her birth year to 1910. Thus, she wanted to establish a link with the Mexican Revolution that started in 1910 and continued until 1920.
Frida Kahlo's first striking health problem began when she had polio when she was 6 years old, and her leg was shorter and weaker. During her school life, this becomes a mockery and her struggle begins at that time. Her friends are starting to call him "Wooden Leg Frida". Frida said for those days, "If there is a truth, it is that the pain entered my body for the first time that day."
Frida Kahlo, the future artist, had her first real nightmare at the age of 18: she was in a terrible bus accident. According to the doctors, it was a miracle that she survived such an accident and her injuries.
Frida's family gave her canvases and paints to paint during this period when she was tied to the bed. "Actually, I started painting without paying much attention," said Frida.
She started painting first to ease her pain. She had a mirror set up against the ceiling so that she could see herself. He looked in the mirror and made self-portraits. Her first work was a self-portrait in a velvet dress. He painted himself over and over again with this steel corset.
After this accident, she had a total of 32 surgeries. She had been seeing doctors for 2 years and took many medications for her pain. After two years, she managed to get back on her feet.
She continued to paint and had a pleasant time with her friends. She met Diego Rivera, the famous painter of the time, in one of her friend's meetings. Diego was a world-renowned painter beyond Mexico. Frida adored Diego. He had shown him the pictures and their first conversation had begun, asking him to comment.
Diego and Frida soon got married and became each other's great love and best friend. However, their turbulent relationship had inflicted great love pain on Frida, and later Frida wrote to describe this relationship, "I had two major accidents in my life; one was Diego and one train nearly killed me; Diego was definitely much more destructive."
Frida got pregnant several times, but due to the unfortunate accident, her pregnancy always ended in miscarriage. She also expressed her feelings about this on her canvases. Reflecting on this incredibly painful subject, her most brilliant work is 'Henry Ford Hospital' above.
After 10 years of marriage, she found out she had been cheated with her sister, Christina, and decided to divorce. This incident made Frida draw her famous painting named 'A Few Small Nips' above.
Frida, who struggled with serious pain both physically and mentally, fell into a bad depression and painted herself in a deer body at that time. She described Frida's mood with this deer wandering through the forest with arrows stuck in her body. Despair and hope go hand in hand in this picture. It was a "wounded deer" whose pain never ceased. Frida was alone and in pain.
She was hospitalized in 1940, when she started experiencing serious health problems. When Diego came to visit him, he proposed to remarry. Frida Kahlo agreed.
However, Frida's condition worsened. She did not recover completely, although she had several serious surgeries. Her gangrenous leg was amputated in 1953. In the same year, she opened a solo exhibition in her bed in Mexico.
Feeling that she would die soon, Frida Kahlo wrote in her diary: “I hope your departure is joyful. And I hope never to come back. "
The artist died of pneumonia in 1954. The house where she lived in 1955 has been turned into a museum that can still be visited by fans today. If you happen to be in Mexico, stop by!