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          Frida Kahlo

  Much is to be said of Mexican art. A vast fusion of traditional Mayan, Toltec, Olmec, Aztec with other Native imagery and themes mixed with the cubism, impressionism, symbolism and even realism styles of the more modern movements of European influenced art. Among the most well-known of Mexico's painters are Diego Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo.

Known for her outlandish use of swear words, dirty jokes, flamboyant clothing styles influenced by traditional native pre-Columbian styles and her determined refusal to shave her mustache or clip her unibrow, Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón was born to a German father and Native Pre-Columbian mixed with Spanish mother on July 6, 1907. She grew up in Coyoacán, a small town outside of Mexico City at the time. Her parents' marriage wasn't the greatest and as a result, Frida was closer to her father.

At age 6, Frida suffered from Polio, rendering one of her legs thinner than other. She was able to elevate herself above the problem, though. Around the age of 15 she was accepted to the Preparatoria, a very exclusive school in Mexico City. Frida Kahlo was one of only 35 girls admitted that year. About the same point in time the Mexican Revolution was beginning, which greatly influenced her entire life.

In 1925 Kahlo was severely injured in a trolley-car/bus accident. A broken spinal column, a broken collarbone, broken ribs, a broken pelvis, 11 fractures in her right leg, a crushed and dislocated right foot and a dislocated shoulder are among the injuries inflicted on her by the accident. Due to her pelvic fracture and being impaled by an iron rail through the uterus, Frida was never able to have children. A condition she never got over. Throughout the rest of her life she'd undergo 35 surgeries in total, resulting from that one accident.

Kahlo didn't focus on being a fulltime painter until after her traumatic accident. In all she'd paint 143 pieces. Of those 143 works, 55 are self-portraits. Her style was officially classified as surrealist, exhibiting bright colors, drama and extraordinarily harsh, often gory content and themes (very much an influence of traditional Native Pre-Columbian art from the region).

Her paintings drew the attention of famed muralist/painter Diego Rivera. Once married they became known as 'The Elephant and The Dove,' due to their extreme differences in size. A noticable difference, but by no means the only way they were less than perfectly matched.  Neither half of the marriage were strangers to extramarital affairs.  Affairs that invoked drama when they were heterosexual.  Kahlo made no secret of the fact that she was bisexual.  Her lesbian flings (Josephine Baker was among her lovers) were tolerated by her husband as they turned him on.

Frida and Diego both befriended Leon Trotsky as he sought political assylum from Stalin's regime in the USSR. Eventually, Trotsky and his wife moved to a house near Frida's in Coyoacán, where he would be assassinated. Not long afterwards, Frida would publically denounce her onetime friend Trotsky and praise Stalin's Soviet Union. Kahlo even began supporting Mao Tse-Tung and referred to China as 'the new socialist hope.'

Sometime in 1954 Frida had her leg amputated after it had become gangrenous. In early July of that year, she wrote in her diary 'I hope the exit is joyful; and I hope never to return.'  It was on the thirteenth of July that she made her joyful exit.  Magdelean Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón died that day of a pulmonary embolism. Though an autopsy was never performed, many believe she commited suicide.