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hauteculturefashion · 6 years ago

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At Haute Culture we can’t think of any other 20th-century artist of whom we would like to read 50 facts about, let alone write them. But Frida Kahlo was much more than a painter, more than a feminist, more than a fashion icon. Her paintings themselves have stood the test of time and are arguably more intriguing to a modern audience than they were in her time and they certainly become richer the more you know of her fascinating life story. Frida’s 47 years were often filled with pain but always fuelled by passion. Read on to discover 50 incredible facts on this fascinating woman’s life, loves and legacy.

Frida Kahlo Art Facts

Frida was a self-taught artist and received no formal art training or education. She learnt how to paint as a cure for boredom whilst being bed bound during her recovery from a near-fatal accident.

She did not consider herself a surrealist artist. Surrealism, during its heyday, was defined as art inspired by the unconscious mind. Unlike surrealist artists such a Salvador Dali and René Magritte, Frida Kahlo stated “I never painted my dreams. I painted my own reality.”

She was the original queen of the selfie, painting over fifty-five self-portraits.

The colours used in her paintings represented her emotions.

Frida often painted directly onto tin in order to emulate traditional Mexican folk art. She also used a variety of mixed media in her works such as newspaper cuttings, photos and shells.

The vast majority of her works are very small in scale.

Frida was a trailblazer for her time. It was very rare for an artist to make their art so personal; the ill health and emotional traumas that directly influenced her work were acknowledged as being completely original for their time. She painted herself as she felt and she wanted to make her feelings known.

Her 1939 painting Dos desnudos en el bosque (La tierra misma) sold for over $8 million in 2016, the highest auction price for any work by a Latin American artist.

Frida was the first Mexican artist to sell her work to a major international museum: The Frame, 1938 was purchased by The Louvre Museum in Paris the same year.

She once arrived at her solo exhibition in her own four-poster bed.

Andre Breton famously referred to Frida’s art as “A ribbon around a bomb”.

Frida did not start to take her painting seriously until much later on in her life.

“I am my own muse. I am the subject that I know best, the subject I want to know better.”

– Frida Kahlo.

Frida Kahlo standing in front of her largest self-portrait Las Dos Fridas 1939. Photo Credit: Bettmann/CORBIS.

Frida Kahlo Fashion Facts

The majority of Frida’s wardrobe and many of her other personal possessions were kept locked away in a bathroom for fifty years. (Click here to read our post on How Frida Kahlo Used Fashion To Build Her Legacy)

Frida was famous for shunning mainstream contemporary fashions in favour of wearing traditional Mexican indigenous dress.

She dressed not only as a way to express her personal style but also to express her political and feminist beliefs. The majority of Frida’s iconic outfits were from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a region in the south of Mexico famous for its powerful matriarchal society.

She would customise her own clothes with ribbons, bells and trinkets.

Pablo Picasso made a pair of earrings for Frida.

Parisian fashion design Elsa Schiaparelli designed a dress titled Madame Rivera in Frida’s honour.

She was twice featured in Vogue magazine.

Frida choose flamboyant clothes with lots of pattern colour and decoration as a tool to conceal her disabilities.

She dressed as much to impress her husband, who adored traditional attire, as she did for herself.

Throughout her life she frequently played with society’s gender boundaries surrounding fashion at the time by wearing men’s garments such as work shirts, dungarees, denim and suits.

Dressing elaborately was not just for public show. Frida would wear her dazzling dresses, Aztec jewellery and hair full of flowers around the house to do daily chores and paint in her studio.

“The gringas really like me a lot and pay close attention to all the dresses and rebozos that I brought with me, their jaws drop at the sight of my jade necklaces.” – Frida Kahlo.

Frida Kahlo dressed in her daily attire two years before her death. Bernice Kolko, 1952

Frida Kahlo Relationship Facts

Frida adored her father, Guillermo Kahlo, who was a photographer for the Mexican government. Her father proclaimed Frida as his favourite child.

However, she had a tense relationship with her mother who she referred to as being “hysterically religious”.

Frida had three sisters; Matilde, Adriana, and Cristina. Her younger sister, Cristina, whom she also considered to be her best friend, broke her heart by having a love affair with her husband Diego in 1934.

Frida’s husband Diego Rivera was one of the most famous artists in the world at the time of their marriage.

Frida believed, without a shadow of a doubt, that she and her husband Diego Rivera were soul mates,. This is why she consistently tolerated his behaviour towards her.

Although Frida did not officially “Come Out” there are multiple reports of Frida having romantic relationships with both men and women. The most famous of these was the French/American entertainer Josephine Baker.

Frida and Diego were married, divorced and married a second time only one year after their divorce. They mutually acknowledged that they couldn’t live without each other. Part of the re-marriage agreement was that they would abstain from having sex with each other.

The couple had countless affairs with other people during their marriage. Frida’s longest affair (around 20 years) was with the famous fashion photographer Nickolas Muray. Her most controversial affair was with their mutual friend, the exiled Russian Revolutionist Leon Trotsky. Frida and Diego lived in separate houses which were only joined by a rooftop bridge that allowed them to entertain their guests privately.

Frida’s Doctor, Dr Leo Eloesser, was one of her closest lifelong friends. They frequently wrote letters to each other for most of her life.

Frida kept many pets such as dogs, deer, birds and monkeys, which most critics believe were substitutes for the children she could not have.

“Make love. Take a bath. Make Love again.” – Frida Kahlo.

Leon Trotsky (second right) and his wife Natalya Sedova (far left) are welcomed to Tampico Harbour, Mexico by Frida Kahlo and the US Trotskyist leader Max Shachtman, January 1937. Photo credit: Getty Images/Gamma-Keystone.

Frida Kahlo Heath Facts

Frida contracted polio when she was six years old which resulted in a shorter and more withered left leg.

At the age of 18, Frida was in a tragic bus accident which almost left her for dead. The collision resulted in multiple full body breaks and fractures to her spine, legs and pelvis which would inhibit her from carrying a child to term and continue to slowly kill her over the next twenty-eight years.

Due to the lack of contraception and her inability to carry a child to term Frida was the victim of numerous miscarriages. The most notable miscarriage took place in Detroit in 1932 which subsequently resulted in Frida producing some of the most original and harrowing works of the twentieth century.

She was in pain for most of her life and underwent over thirty operations and procedures to try to correct her ever-deteriorating body, she wrote in her diary and in a letter to a friend that she felt death frequently dancing around her bed.

She was suspended for the ceiling with bags of sand tied to her feet.

In 1950, she spent nine months in the hospital due to the presence of gangrene which eventually saw her left leg amputated.

Towards the latter years of her life, she became drug and alcohol dependent due to the incredible physical and emotional pain she endured from being repeatedly bed bound for months at a time.

She lied about her age. Frida was born in 1907 but told people she was born in 1910 to give the impression that she was born during the same year that the Mexican Revolution began.

She died in her bed of a pulmonary embolism when she was just 47 years old. She knew the end was in sight and wrote in her diary “I hope the exit is joyful – and I hope never to return – Frida”, just a few days before passing.

“Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly.” – Frida Kahlo.

Frida painting in her bed, Anonymous, 1940. Photo Credit: Frida Kahlo Museum

Frida Kahlo’s Philosophy Facts

Frida was a feminist and her ideals made a very unique woman for her time. She lived and travelled alone, she earned her own money by making her own art, she expressed her emotions, sexuality and political views freely and fiercely fought for equality throughout her life.

She was a communist and a part of the Young Communist League and the Mexican Communist Party. Frida believed that communism meant community and wished for the masses to rise up and take leadership of Mexico.

Frida was, at heart, an optimist. She was a fighter and rarely let the poor fate she was served both physically and romantically get the better of her.

“At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.” – Frida Kahlo.

Frida Kahlo laying down by Nickolas Muray. Photo credit: Google Arts and Culture

Frida Kahlo’s Loves in Life

Frida was an avid writer. She kept a diary and had many pen friends.

She collected dolls and traditional Mexican folk art.

She loved to entertain guests by cooking big meals and hosting frequent parties.

She had a deep love of music and would dance whenever she was able.

Frida was an incredibly passionate and hopelessly romantic woman. Diego was the greatest love of her life and she never gave up on him.

“I love you more than my own skin and even though you don’t love me the same way, you love me anyways, don’t you? And if you don’t, I’ll always have the hope that you do, and I’m satisfied with that. Love me a little. I adore you.” – Frida Kahlo.

Frida Kahlo’s lipstick print on a photograph of her husband Diego Rivera by Anonymous, 1940. Photo credit: Frida Kahlo Museum

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