I went to "visit" an incredible artist today.
If I called her the best female painter of all times it might be sexist-machist-offensive, as, for me, she can stand against any painter, male or female, and hold ground.
On the other hand
Frida Kahlo's art is female, passionate, cruel, emotional, true and raw, some would say - manifestation of The Goddess on canvas.
If my life could be a blog, her life is books and films and albums and much more. She keeps provoking thought, compassioon but not pity, makes us look deep into her suffering eyes and see the reflection of our lives souls. In Diego Rivera's words: "Never before had a woman put such agonized poetry on canvas as Frida did (...)"
"They thought I was a surrealist, but I never was one. I never painted dreams, only painted my own reality". Thank you for sharing your reality, Frida...
From a fansiteOn a rainy morning in Coyoacán, Mexico, Frida Kahlo was born in the house that her father built just a few years earlier. Her relationship with her father was very warm and close but in contrast, her relationship with her mother was very cold and distant and remained that way throughout her life. At age 18 Frida was involved in a terrible bus accident that changed her life forever. At age 22 she married a 'womanizing" man 21 years her senior. Their turbulent relationship survived through the good times, the bad times, through divorce and remarriage, infidelities, living together and sometimes apart. As a result of the bus accident and three miscarriages, Frida was left childless and often turned to her pets and dolls for comfort during times of despair and loneliness. She smoked, she drank, at parties she often used foul language to shock her friends and was not above "stretching" the truth to embellish the stories she told.
She painted her own reality, she said, and traveled the world to show and some times shock the art world with her creative works. She at times lived in two different worlds and was torn between her love for Diego and the love for her native Mexico. She was politically active, but not always "politically correct", and in the end devoted her painting to her political convictions. She endured more than 30 operations in her lifetime that left her scared both physically and mentally. Despite the years of pain and suffering, she continued to do what she loved doing best….paint. Once when hospitalized she said: "When I get out of here there are three things that I want to do….paint, paint, and paint." And paint she did. Although more than once she considered suicide, it was her love for Diego and her passion for painting that kept her alive. In the end it was the painkillers she took to survive that stripped her of her ability to paint. On a rainy night in Coyoacán, Mexico, Frida Kahlo passed away in the house where she was born 47 years earlier.
It was an extraordinary life for an extraordinary woman. Although Frida is gone, her legacy lives on in the more than 200 paintings, drawings and sketches that she left behind. We can no longer view her paintings as just self-portraits or still life but to search for the true meaning and emotion hidden beneath the paint…
