Frida Kahlo, Mexican Artist
Frida Kahlo, holding the leaf of an agave plant, during a photo shoot for Vogue magazine, Senoras of Mexico. Frida Kahlo de Rivera (July 6, 1907 - July 13, 1954) was a Mexican artist. Until a traffic accident at age 18 caused lifelong pain and medical problems, she had been a promising student headed for medical school. During her recovery, from a traffic accident, she returned to her childhood hobby of art with the idea of becoming an artist. In 1927, she joined the Mexican Communist Party, where she met Diego Rivera, whom she married in 1928. During the late 1920s and early 1930s traveling in Mexico and the United States with Rivera, she developed her own style as an artist, drawing inspiration from Mexican folk culture, and painting mostly self-portraits which mixed elements from pre-Columbian and Catholic mythology. Throughout the 1940s, Kahlo participated in exhibitions in Mexico and the United States. She taught at the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado and became a founding member of the Seminario de Cultura Mexicana. Kahlo's always fragile health began to decline in the same decade. She had her first solo exhibition in Mexico in 1953, shortly before her death in 1954 at the age of 47. Kahlo is regarded as an icon for Chicanos, feminism and the LGBTQ movement. Photographed by Toni Frissell, 1937
