Frida Kahlo

Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón was born in 1907 in Coyoacán, on the outskirts of Mexico City, in the blue house known as La Casa Azul. Childhood polio and, at eighteen, a devastating bus accident left her with lifelong pain and repeated surgeries. It was during her long convalescence that she began to paint, using a mirror mounted above her bed.

Kahlo developed a singular style rooted in Mexican folk art, filling her canvases with vivid color, symbolism, and unsparing honesty. Many of her roughly 200 works are self-portraits exploring identity, the body, and endurance. In 1929 she married the muralist Diego Rivera, and their intense, turbulent partnership shaped both their lives. Her paintings were exhibited in New York and Paris in the late 1930s.

Though recognized in her lifetime, Kahlo held her first solo exhibition in Mexico only in 1953, attending the opening in her four-poster bed. She died in Coyoacán the following year, aged 47. In the decades since, her reputation has grown immensely: her home is now a museum, and her art and spirit endure as emblems of resilience, honesty, and Mexican identity.