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Frida Kahlo

Mexico's most celebrated artist — who turned pain into art.

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About

Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) was a Mexican painter known for her intensely personal self-portraits exploring pain, identity, post-colonialism, gender, and Mexican folk culture. At 18, she survived a devastating bus accident that broke her spine, collarbone, ribs, and pelvis, and required 35 surgeries over her lifetime — she painted through her recovery lying in bed with a mirror mounted above her. Kahlo's marriage to muralist Diego Rivera was famously turbulent — they married, divorced, and remarried. She died at 47 and was largely forgotten until the feminist art movement rediscovered her in the 1970s. Today she is one of the most recognizable artists in history, her image on everything from stamps to Barbie dolls.

# Top 10 Frida Kahlo facts

  1. 1Kahlo painted her first self-portrait while bedridden in a full body cast after her bus accident at 18
  2. 2She and Diego Rivera married, divorced, and remarried — their relationship was defined by mutual infidelity
  3. 3Kahlo was largely ignored during her lifetime
  4. 4feminist scholars rediscovered her after her death

Fascinating Facts

  • Kahlo painted her first self-portrait while bedridden in a full body cast after her bus accident at 18
  • She and Diego Rivera married, divorced, and remarried — their relationship was defined by mutual infidelity
  • Kahlo was largely ignored during her lifetime; feminist scholars rediscovered her after her death
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