Frida Kahlo paintings with descriptions. The story of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo

Kahlo Frida, Mexican artist and graphic artist, wife of Diego Rivera, master of surrealism. Frida Kahlo was born in Mexico City in 1907, in the family of a Jewish photographer, originally from Germany. Mother is Spanish, born in America. She suffered from polio at the age of six, and since then her right leg has become shorter and thinner than her left. At the age of eighteen, on September 17, 1925, Kahlo was in a car accident: a broken iron rod from a tram's current collector stuck in her stomach and came out at her groin, shattering her hip bone. The spine was damaged in three places, two hips and a leg were broken in eleven places. Doctors could not vouch for her life. The painful months of motionless inaction began. It was at this time that Kahlo asked her father for a brush and paints. For Frida Kahlo, they made a special stretcher that allowed her to write while lying down. The beds are attached under the canopy large mirror so Frida Kahlo could see herself. She started with self-portraits. I write myself because I spend a lot of time alone and because I am the subject I know best.

In 1929, Frida Kahlo entered the National Institute of Mexico. During a year spent in almost complete immobility, Kahlo became seriously interested in painting. Having started walking again, I visited art school and in 1928 joined the Communist Party. Her work was highly appreciated by the already famous communist artist Diego Rivera.

At 22, Frida Kahlo married him. Their family life seething with passions. They could not always be together, but never apart. They shared a relationship - passionate, obsessive and sometimes painful. An ancient sage said about such relationships: It is impossible to live either with you or without you. Frida Kahlo’s relationship with Trotsky is shrouded in a romantic aura. The Mexican artist admired the tribune of the Russian revolution, had a hard time with his expulsion from the USSR and was happy that, thanks to Diego Rivera, he found shelter in Mexico City. Most of all in life, Frida Kahlo loved life itself - and this magnetically attracted men and women to her. Despite the excruciating physical suffering, she could have fun from the heart and carouse widely. But the damaged spine constantly reminded of itself. From time to time, Frida Kahlo had to go to the hospital and almost constantly wear special corsets. In 1950, she underwent 7 spinal surgeries, spent 9 months in a hospital bed, after which she could only move in a wheelchair.

In 1952, Frida Kahlo's right leg was amputated at the knee. In 1953, Frida Kahlo's first solo exhibition took place in Mexico City. In not a single self-portrait does Frida Kahlo smile: a serious, even mournful face, fused thick eyebrows, a barely noticeable mustache above tightly compressed sensual lips. The ideas of her paintings are encrypted in the details, background, figures appearing next to Frida. Kahlo's symbolism is based on national traditions and is closely connected with Indian mythology of the pre-Hispanic period. Frida Kahlo knew the history of her homeland brilliantly. Many authentic monuments of ancient culture, which Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo collected throughout their lives, are located in the garden Blue House(house museum). Frida Kahlo died of pneumonia a week after celebrating her 47th birthday, on July 13, 1954. Farewell to Frida Kahlo took place in Bellas Artes - Palace of Fine Arts. IN last way Frida, along with Diego Rivera, was accompanied by Mexican President Lazaro Cardenas, artists, writers - Siqueiros, Emma Hurtado, Victor Manuel Villaseñor and other famous figures of Mexico.

The flamboyant Mexican artist Frida Kahlo is best known to the public for her symbolic self-portraits and depictions of Mexican and Amerindian cultures. Known for her strong and strong-willed character, as well as her communist sentiments, Kahlo left an indelible mark not only on Mexican but also on world painting.

The artist had a difficult fate: almost all her life she was haunted by numerous diseases, operations and unsuccessful treatments. So, at the age of six, Frida was bedridden by polio, as a result of which her right leg became thinner than her left and the girl remained lame for the rest of her life. The father encouraged his daughter in every possible way, involving her in male sports at that time - swimming, football and even wrestling. In many ways, this helped Frida form a persistent, courageous character.

The event of 1925 was a turning point in Frida's career as an artist. On September 17, she was involved in an accident along with her fellow student and lover Alejandro Gomez Arias. As a result of the collision, Frida ended up in the Red Cross hospital with numerous fractures of the pelvis and spine. Serious injuries led to a difficult and painful recovery. It was at this time that she asked to be given paints and a brush: a mirror suspended under the canopy of the bed allowed the artist to see herself and she began her creative path from self-portraits.

Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera

Being one of the few female students of the National preparatory school, Frida is already interested in political discourse during her studies. In later life, she even becomes a member of the Mexican communist party and the Young Communist League.

It was during her studies that Frida first met the then famous wall painting master Diego Rivera. Kahlo often watched Rivera as he worked on the Creation mural in the school auditorium. Some sources claim that Frida already spoke about her desire to give birth to a child from the muralist.

Rivera encouraged Frida's creative work, but the union of the two bright personalities was very unstable. Most of the time, Diego and Frida lived separately, moving into houses or apartments next door. Frida was upset by her husband’s numerous infidelities, and she was especially hurt by Diego’s relationship with her younger sister Christina. In response to the family betrayal, Kahlo cut off her famous black locks and captured the resentment and pain she suffered in the painting “Memory (Heart).”

Nevertheless, the sensual and ardent artist also had affairs on the side. Among her lovers are the famous American avant-garde sculptor of Japanese origin Isamu Noguchi, and the communist refugee Leon Trotsky, who took refuge in Frida's Blue House (Casa Azul) in 1937. Kahlo was bisexual, so her romantic relationships with women are also known, for example, with the American pop artist Josephine Baker.

Despite betrayals and affairs on both sides, Frida and Diego, even breaking up in 1939, reunited again and remained spouses until the artist’s death.

The husband's infidelity and inability to give birth to a child are clearly depicted in Kahlo's paintings. The embryos, fruits and flowers depicted in many of Frida's paintings symbolize precisely her inability to bear children, which was the cause of her extremely depressive states. Thus, the painting “Henry Ford Hospital” depicts a nude artist and symbols of her infertility - an embryo, a flower, damaged hip joints, connected to her by bloody vein-like threads. At the New York exhibition in 1938, this painting was presented under the title “Lost Desire.”

Features of creativity

The uniqueness of Frida’s paintings lies in the fact that all her self-portraits are not limited to depicting solely her appearance. Each canvas is rich in details from the artist’s life: each depicted object is symbolic. It is also significant how exactly Frida depicted the connections between objects: most of the connections are blood vessels that feed the heart.

Each self-portrait contains clues to the meaning of what is depicted: the artist herself always imagined herself serious, without a shadow of a smile on her face, but her feelings are expressed through the prism of perception of the background, color palette, and objects surrounding Frida.

Already in 1932, more graphic and surreal elements were visible in Kahlo’s work. Frida herself was alien to surrealism with far-fetched and fantastic plots: the artist expressed real suffering on her canvases. The connection with this movement was rather symbolic, since in Frida’s paintings one can detect the influence of pre-Columbian civilization, national Mexican motifs and symbols, as well as the theme of death. In 1938, fate brought her into contact with the founder of surrealism, Andre Breton, about a meeting with whom Frida herself spoke as follows: “I never thought that I was a surrealist until Andre Breton came to Mexico and told me about it.” Before meeting Breton, Frida's self-portraits were rarely perceived as something special, but French poet I saw surreal motifs on the canvases, which made it possible to depict the artist’s emotions and her unspoken pain. Thanks to this meeting, a successful exhibition of Kahlo's paintings took place in New York.

In 1939, after her divorce from Diego Rivera, Frida painted one of the most telling paintings - “The Two Fridas”. The painting depicts two natures of one person. One Frida is dressed in a white dress, on which drops of blood flowing from her wounded heart are visible; The dress of the second Frida has a brighter color, and the heart is unharmed. Both Fridas are connected by blood vessels that feed both exposed hearts - a technique often used by the artist to convey heartache. Frida in bright national clothes is exactly the “Mexican Frida” that Diego loved, and the image of the artist in Victorian wedding dress– a Westernized version of the woman Diego abandoned. Frida holds her hand, emphasizing her loneliness.

Kahlo's paintings are etched into the memory not only by their images, but also by their bright, energetic palette. In her diary, Frida herself tried to explain the colors used in the creation of her paintings. Thus, green was associated with a kind, warm light, magenta purple was associated with the Aztec past, yellow symbolized insanity, fear and illness, and blue symbolized purity of love and energy.

Frida's legacy

In 1951, after more than 30 operations, the mentally and physically broken artist was able to endure the pain only thanks to painkillers. Even at that time, it was difficult for her to draw as before, and Frida used medications along with alcohol. Previously detailed images became more blurry, drawn hastily and inattentively. As a result of alcohol abuse and frequent psychological breakdowns, the artist's death in 1954 gave rise to many rumors of suicide.

But with her death, Frida’s fame only increased, and her beloved Blue House became a museum-gallery of paintings by Mexican artists. The feminist movement of the 1970s also revived interest in the artist, as Frida was seen by many as an iconic figure of feminism. Hayden Herrera's A Biography of Frida Kahlo and the 2002 film Frida keep this interest alive.

Self-portraits of Frida Kahlo

More than half of Frida's works are self-portraits. She started drawing at the age of 18, after she was in a terrible accident. Her body was badly broken: her spine was damaged, her pelvic bones, collarbone, ribs were broken, there were eleven fractures on one leg alone. Frida's life was in the balance, but the young girl was able to win, and, oddly enough, drawing helped her with this. Even in the hospital room, a large mirror was placed in front of her and Frida drew herself.

In almost all self-portraits, Frida Kahlo portrayed herself as serious, gloomy, as if frozen and cold with a stern, impenetrable face, but all the emotions and emotional experiences of the artist can be felt in the details and figures surrounding her. Each of the paintings contains the feelings that Frida experienced at a certain point in time. With the help of a self-portrait, she seemed to be trying to understand herself, to reveal her inner world, to free herself from the passions raging inside her.

The artist was amazing person With enormous power of will, who loves life, knows how to rejoice and love limitlessly. Her positive attitude towards the world around her and her surprisingly subtle sense of humor attracted the most different people. Many sought to get into her “Blue House” with indigo-colored walls, to recharge with the optimism that the girl fully possessed.

Frida Kahlo put into every self-portrait she painted the strength of her character, all the mental anguish she experienced, the pain of loss and genuine willpower; she does not smile in any of them. The artist always portrays herself as strict and serious. Frida suffered the betrayal of her beloved husband Diego Rivera very hard and painfully. Self-portraits written during that period of time are literally permeated with suffering and pain. However, despite all the trials of fate, the artist was able to leave behind more than two hundred paintings, each of which is unique.

Today we are reading about Frida, about how she created her unique style!

And at the end of the article, I will again try on the style of our icon, adapting it to suit myself. Looking ahead, I will say that I really liked it, and I felt incredibly comfortable!

110 years have passed since the birth of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, but her image still continues to excite the minds of many people. A style icon, the most mysterious woman of the early 20th century, Salvador Dali in a skirt, a rebel, a desperate communist and a heavy smoker - these are just a small part of the epithets with which we associate Frida.

After suffering polio as a child, her right leg shriveled and became shorter than her left. And to compensate for the difference, the girl had to wear several pairs of stockings and an additional heel. But Frida did everything possible so that her peers would not guess about her illness: she ran, played football, boxed, and if she fell in love, then she fell into unconsciousness.

The image that we mentally picture for ourselves when we mention Frida is flowers in her hair, thick eyebrows, bright colors and fluffy skirts. But this is only the thinnest top layer of the image of a magnificent woman, which any average person far from art can read about on Wikipedia.

Every element of the dress, every piece of jewelry, every flower on her head - Frida put into it all deepest meaning, associated with her difficult life.

Kahlo was not always the woman with whom we associate the Mexican artist. In her youth, she often liked to experiment with men's suits and repeatedly appeared at family photo shoots in the image of a man with slicked hair. Frida loved to shock, and for the 20s of the last century, a young woman in trousers and with a cigarette at the ready in Mexico was shocking of the highest category.

Later, there were also experiments with trousers, but solely to annoy the unfaithful husband.

Frida is far left

Frida's creative path, which later led her to the image familiar to everyone, began with a serious accident. The bus in which the girl was traveling collided with a tram. Frida was pieced together, she underwent about 35 operations, and spent a year in bed. She was only 18 years old. It was then that she first picked up an easel and paints and began to paint.

Most of Frida Kahlo's works were self-portraits. She drew herself. There was a mirror hanging on the ceiling of the room where the immobilized artist lay. And, as Frida later wrote in her diary: “I write about myself because I spend a lot of time alone and because I am the topic that I have studied best.”

After a year spent in bed, Frida, contrary to doctors’ predictions, was still able to walk. But from that very moment, incessant pain becomes her faithful companion until her death. First, the physical one - an aching spine, a tight plaster corset and metal struts.

And then spiritual love - passionate love for her husband, the no less great artist Diego Rivera, who was a big fan female beauty and was content not only with his wife’s company.

To somehow distract herself from her pain, Frida surrounds herself with beauty and bright colors not only in the paintings, but also finds it in herself. She paints her corsets, weaves ribbons into her hair, and decorates her fingers with massive rings.

Partly to please her husband (Rivera was extremely fond of Frida's feminine side), and partly to hide the flaws of her body, Frida begins to wear long, full skirts.

The original idea to dress Frida in a national costume belonged to Diego; he sincerely believed that indigenous Mexican women should not adopt American bourgeois habits. Frida first appeared in national costume at his wedding to Rivera, borrowing a dress from their maid.

It is this image that Frida Kahlo will make her own in the future. business card, honing each element and creating herself as an object of art as her own paintings.

Bright colors, floral prints, embroidery and ornaments were filigree intertwined in each of her outfits, distinguishing the outrageous Frida from her contemporaries, who slowly began to wear minis, pearl necklaces, feathers and fringe (hello from the great Gatsby). Kahlo becomes a real standard and trendsetter of ethnic style.

Frida loved layering, skillfully combined a variety of fabrics and textures, and wore several skirts at once (again, in order, among other things, to hide the asymmetry of her figure after undergoing operations). The loose embroidered shirts that the artist wore perfectly hid her medical corset from prying eyes, and the shawls thrown over her shoulders were the finishing touch in diverting attention from her illness.

Unfortunately, this cannot be verified, but there is a version that the stronger Frida’s pain was, the brighter her outfits became.

Colors, layers, an abundance of massive ethnic accessories, flowers and ribbons woven into the hair, over time became the main elements of the artist’s unique style.

Kahlo did everything so that those around her would not think about her illness for a second, but would see only a bright, pleasing picture. And when her bad leg was amputated, she began wearing a prosthesis with a high-heeled boot and bells so that everyone around could hear her steps approaching.

For the first time, Frida Kahlo's style created a real sensation in France in 1939. At that time, she came to Paris for the opening of an exhibition dedicated to Mexico. Her photo in an ethnic outfit was placed on the cover of Vogue itself.

As for Frida’s famous “unibrow,” this was also part of her personal rebellion. Already at the beginning of the last century, women began to get rid of excess facial hair. Frida, on the contrary, specially emphasized wide eyebrows and mustaches with black paint and carefully painted them in her portraits. Yes, she understood that she looked different from everyone else, but that was exactly her goal. Facial hair never prevented her from remaining desirable to the opposite sex (and not only). She radiated sexuality and an incredible will to live with every cell of her wounded body.

Frida died at the age of 47 a week after her own exhibition, where she was brought in a hospital bed. That day, as befits her, she was dressed in a bright suit, jangling her jewelry, drinking wine and laughing, although she was in unbearable pain.

Everything that she left behind: a personal diary, outfits, jewelry - today is part of the exhibition of her and Diego’s house-museum in Mexico City. By the way, it was her outfits that Frida’s husband forbade to exhibit for fifty years after his wife’s death. Humanity had to wait half a century to see in person the artist’s clothes, which the entire fashion world is still talking about.

Frida Kahlo's look on the catwalk

After her death, the image of Frida Kahlo was replicated by many designers. To create her collections, Frida was inspired by Jean-Paul Gaultier, Alberta Ferretti, Missoni, Valentino, Alexander McQueen, Dolce & Gabbana, Moschino.

Alberta Feretti Jean-Paul Gaultier D&G

Gloss editors have also repeatedly exploited Frida's style in photo shoots. To a shocking Mexican woman different times reincarnated Monica Bellucci, Claudia Schiffer, Gwyneth Paltrow, Karlie Kloss, Amy Winehouse and many others.

One of my favorite performances is the role of Salma Hayek in the film Frida.

Frida is about love, acceptance of yourself and your body, strength of spirit and creativity. Frida Kahlo is the story of an amazing woman who managed to make her own inner world a work of art.

And now it’s my turn to try on Frida’s style!

Frida Kahlo (Spanish Frida Kahlo de Rivera , July 6, 1907, Coyoacan, Mexico - July 13, 1954, Coyoacan, Mexico) is a Mexican artist who became famous for her surreal paintings. In her youth, Frida was in a car accident, which left an imprint on her entire life and affected her creativity. Kahlo began writing while bedridden. The artist became famous in Europe (in particular, thanks to her husband Diego Rivera), but always dreamed of recognition in her homeland. Frida's first solo exhibition in Mexico took place in 1953, shortly before her death.

Features of the work of the artist Frida Kahlo: For the most part, in her symbolic works, Frida talks about herself - her experiences, physical and mental pain. An impressive part of her paintings are self-portraits, in which she is usually surrounded by plants and animals. In addition, Frida often addresses the topic of illness and death.

Famous paintings of Frida Kahlo:“Broken Column”, “Two Fridas”, “Just a few scratches! ", "Sleep (Bed)", "Frida and Diego Rivera", "Henry Ford Hospital", "Wounded Deer".

Mexicans are a strange people, very strange indeed. They paint their clothes, their houses and their entire lives in heavenly and sunny colors, speak some kind of their own, especially melodious Spanish, and completely take out their souls with songs. They worship Santa Muerte (“Holy Death”), and the main National holiday- The Day of the Dead is turned into a real celebration of life. Where else, if not here, could such a person as Frida Kahlo be born?

Frida is one of those rare cases in the art world when an artist’s popularity is due in large part to his tragic personal story, which pushes talented work into the background. All her life it was as if she had been running a race with death, sometimes falling behind, sometimes getting ahead, sometimes desperately clinging to life, sometimes dreaming of “leaving and never returning.” No matter how paradoxical it may sound, death turned out to be Kahlo’s most faithful companion throughout her entire life.

Crucial moment

Wilhelm Kahlo, having arrived in Mexico from Germany, changed his name to the Spanish Guillermo and abandoned Judaism. His first wife gave birth to three girls, but the middle daughter died soon after birth, and the woman herself did not survive the third birth. Guillermo was left alone with two children and very quickly married again - to Matilda Calderon y Gonzalez. At that time, the girl also managed to experience a personal tragedy: Matilda’s fiancé committed suicide in front of her eyes. Frida later wrote in her diary that her mother was never able to fully recover from this terrible loss and love her husband.

Matilda gave Guillermo four girls (Matilda, Adriana, Frida and Cristina), and their only son died of pneumonia a few days after birth. Magdalena Carmen Frida Calderon was born on July 6, 1907. Many years later, this date will seem insufficiently significant to Frida, and she will “adjust” her birthday to the beginning of the Mexican Revolution - July 7, 1910.

When the girl was six years old, her muscles began to hurt right leg. Despite the efforts of doctors and Guillermo Calo, who was seriously involved in physical development daughter, polio dried out the girl’s leg, leaving her lame for life. But the real tragedy was ahead. The girl still has time to grow up, enter a prestigious German school, acquire a “gang” of loyal friends, fall in love for the first time and begin making plans for a medical career.

Everything collapsed on September 17, 1925, when a tram crashed into a bus in which Frida was traveling from school. Doctors doubted that the girl would survive, let alone start walking again: crushed pelvic bones, a broken spine and many other injuries confined Frida to bed for many months and reminded her of herself with constant pain all her life. At that moment, death paid attention to her for the first time, came closer to take a closer look, and stayed close the whole time. At that moment, Frida's life ended. And something completely different began.

Dance with death

Another thing that distinguishes Frida’s paintings is their deep emotionality. Everything that she cannot express in words, everything that she is forced to remain silent about, Kahlo transfers to canvas. She shows the viewer blood, pain, human insides, the ugly truth of life. Frida shares her feelings about her husband’s constant infidelities - famous artist Diego Rivera (“Just a Few Scratches!”, 1935), suffering due to another loss of a child (“Henry Ford Hospital,” 1932) and incessant pain after injuries, illnesses and countless operations (“Broken Column,” 1944, “ Without Hope", 1945, "Wounded Deer", 1946). And throughout her life, Kahlo mercilessly opens her soul, just as doctors opened her exhausted body again and again, and shows the viewer her own open heart, sensitive and defenseless (“Two Fridas”, 1939).

And finally, Frida would not be Frida if she had not inherited the Mexican attitude towards death - with respect, of course, but also with a fair amount of humor. An integral part of Mexican culture are the so-called "retablos", primitive pictures on small metal plates that were drawn in gratitude to the saints (Diego and Frida collected huge collection such images). In particular, it was from the retablo that death in various forms and guises migrated to Kahlo’s paintings. She stands straight up full height in the square in Coyoacan not far from Frida’s house (“Inhabitants of Mexico City”, 1938), stares at the empty eye sockets of the mask crowning the body of a little girl in a pink dress (“Girl with a Mask of Death”, 1938) and with a smile waits in the wings over the bed of the sleeping Frida ( "Sleep (Bed)", 1940). This is the only way the artist can escape the fear that this constant invisible presence instills in her.

Viva la vida!

Frida felt very uncomfortable being away from her native Mexico. Neither New York nor Paris impressed her; she was eager to return to her Blue House, where she was born and lived almost all her life, to her Diego. They left and returned, quarreled and made peace, divorced and remarried, lived in different houses connected by a thin bridge. Meanwhile, they tried to piece together Frida’s body, which was falling apart, with the help of metal corsets, numerous operations and medications.

Frida Kahlo's first solo exhibition in Mexico took place only in 1953. By that time, the artist was already bedridden and constantly under the influence of strong painkillers and alcohol. But this an important event There was no way she could miss it in her life. During the opening of the exhibition, Frida was carried into the Gallery of Modern Art on a stretcher and laid on a bed in the center of the hall.

IN last years It became increasingly difficult for Kahlo to draw. She returned to where she started - painting still lifes while lying in bed. Last job Frida's painting is considered “Viva la vida!” Watermelons" (1954), however, judging by its clear lines and confident brushstrokes, it was painted long before that. The final touch was only an inscription in blood-red paint, as if carved on the ripe pulp of a watermelon. "Viva la vida!" - “Long live life!” What else, if not this daring challenge, could Frida Kahlo write, already looking into the eyes of death?

Frida Kahlo de Rivera(Spanish) Frida Kahlo de Rivera), or Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo Calderon(Spanish) Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo Calderon ; Coyoacan, Mexico City, July 6 - July 13), is a Mexican artist best known for her self-portraits.

Mexican culture and the art of the peoples of pre-Columbian America influenced noticeable influence to her work. Art style Frida Kahlo is sometimes characterized as naïve art or folk art. The founder of surrealism, Andre Breton, ranked her among the surrealists.

She was in poor health all her life - she suffered from polio from the age of six, and also suffered a serious car accident in adolescence, after which she had to undergo numerous operations that affected her entire life. In 1929, she married the artist Diego Rivera, and, like him, supported the Communist Party.

Encyclopedic YouTube

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✪ Frida Kahlo, “Frida and Diego Rivera”, 1931

✪ Frida Kahlo, Mexican artist (narrated by Yuri Sokolov)

✪ Frida Calo-Mexican artist XX century. Gallery of works

✪ Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Love story.

Subtitles

We are in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and in front of us is a portrait of Frida Kahlo - "Frida and Diego Rivera", painted in 1931. This picture belongs to early works Frida Kahlo. can be seen in this magnificent place. They were here because Diego was invited to paint the walls. By that time he was already a famous artist in Mexico, and he was invited to work in the United States. He was about to open his solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. And, as it seems to me, this was only the second personal exhibition that took place in this museum. Right. The first exhibition was dedicated to the works of Matisse., at the Mexican Revolution, and created art for the people. He is depicted as a worker. Their hands amaze me. Her hand seems to hover over his. It's like she's letting go of his hand. The curious thing is that he is holding a palette and brushes in his hands, although this is her painting.

She lives her life in the picture and looks at us.

It seems to me that this is how the artist expresses her independence.

Diego stands firmly on his feet and does not move.

His hands are in front of us and he is open to her. But this tilt of the head gives her some movement. And she just raises her hand, bows her head, and her gaze is directed at us.

Look up and you will see a flying bird carrying a banner.

The museum staff translated this inscription into English, and it reads: “Here you see me,

Frida Kahlo

, with my beloved husband, Diego Rivera. This portrait was painted by me in such a wonderful city as San Francisco, California State , for our friend, Albert Bender. This was in April 1931."

The entrance to the house is guarded by two giant Judases, their twenty-foot-tall papier-mâché figures making gestures as if inviting each other to conversation.

Inside, Frida's palettes and brushes lie on the work table as if she had just left them there. Next to Diego Rivera's bed lies his hat, his work robe, and his huge boots. The large corner bedroom has a glass display case. Above it is written: “Frida Kahlo was born here on July 7, 1910.” The inscription appeared four years after the artist’s death, when her house became a museum. Unfortunately, the inscription is inaccurate. As Frida's birth certificate shows, she was born on July 6, 1907. But choosing something more significant than the insignificant facts, she decided that she was born not in 1907, but in 1910, the year the Mexican Revolution began. Since she was a child during the revolutionary decade and lived among the chaos and blood-stained streets of Mexico City, she decided that she was born along with this revolution.

Another inscription adorns the bright blue and red walls of the courtyard: “Frida and Diego lived in this house from 1929 to 1954.” It reflects the sentimental ideal attitude to marriage, which is again at odds with reality. Before Diego and Frida's trip to the USA, where they spent 4 years (until 1934), they lived in this house negligibly. In 1934-1939 they lived in two houses built especially for them in the residential area of ​​​​San Angel. Then followed long periods when, preferring to live independently in a studio in San Angel, Diego did not live with Frida at all, not to mention the year when both Rivers separated, divorced and remarried. Both inscriptions embellished reality. Like the museum itself, they are part of the legend of Frida.

Commercialization of the name

IN beginning of XXI century, Venezuelan entrepreneur Carlos Dorado created the Frida Kahlo Corporation Foundation, to which the relatives of the great artist granted the right to commercially use Frida’s name. Within a few years there was a line of cosmetics, a brand of tequila, sports shoes, jewelry, ceramics, corsets and underwear, as well as beer with the name of Frida Kahlo.

In art

The bright and extraordinary personality of Frida Kahlo is reflected in works of literature and cinema.

Heritage

Asteroid 27792 Fridakahlo, discovered on February 20, 1993 by Erik Elst, was named in honor of Frida Kahlo on September 26, 2007. On August 30, 2010, the Bank of Mexico issued a new 500-peso banknote, which featured Frida and her 1949 painting on the back. Love's Embrace of the Universe, Earth, (Mexico), I, Diego, and Mr. Xólotl, and on the front side of which her husband Diego was depicted. On July 6, 2010, on the anniversary of Frida's birth, a doodle was released in her honor.

On March 21, 2001, Frida became the first Mexican woman to be featured on a U.S. stamp.

In 1994, American jazz flautist and composer James Newton released an album inspired by Kahlo entitled Suite for Frida Kahlo, on AudioQuest Music.

Notes

1. CLARA - 2008.
2. RKDartists
3. Internet Speculative Fiction Database - 1995.
4. Frida Kahlo (undefined) . Smithsonian.com. Retrieved February 18, 2008. Archived October 17, 2012.(English)
5. Frida - German name from the word "peace", (Friede/Frieden); "e" stopped appearing in the name around 1935
6. Herrera, Hayden. A Biography of Frida Kahlo. - New York: HarperCollins, 1983. - ISBN 978-0-06-008589-6.(English)
7. Frida Kahlo by Adam G. Klein (English)
8. Kahlo, Frida // Great Russian Encyclopedia. - 2008. - T. 12. - P. 545. - ISBN 978-5-85270-343-9.
9. Lozano, Luis-Martín (2007), p. 236 (Spanish)
10. Hayden Herrera: Frida. Biographie de Frida Kahlo.Übersetzt aus dem Englischen von Philippe Beaudoin. Editions Anne Carrière, Paris 1996, S. 20.
11. Frida Kahlo"s father wasn"t Jewish after all
12. Frida Kahlo (1907–1954), Mexican Painter (undefined) . Biography. Retrieved February 19, 2013. Archived April 14, 2013.
13. Andrea, Kettenmann. Frida Kahlo: Pain and Passion. - Köln: Benedikt Taschen Verlag GmbH, 1993. - P. 3. - ISBN 3-8228-9636-5.
14. Budrys, Valmantas (February 2006). “Neurological Deficits in the Life and Work of Frida Kahlo” . European Neurology. 55 (1): 4-10. DOI:10.1159/000091136. ISSN (print), ISSN 1421-9913 (Online) 0014-3022 (print), ISSN 1421-9913 (Online) Check the |issn= parameter (help in English). PMID . Retrieved 2008-01-22. Uses deprecated |month= (