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Born in 1907 in a suburb of Mexico City, Kahlo had a difficult childhood. At six, she contracted polio, permanently damaging her right foot and leg. At eighteen she was riding a bus when it was struck by a streetcar, leaving her with near-fatal injuries. The bus accident inspired Kahlo to take up painting. As an emerging artist, Kahlo sought advice from Mexico’s leading painters, including Diego Rivera, whom she had met briefly as a young girl. Rivera was impressed and encouraging of her work, and their relationship deepened, leading to their marriage in 1929.
Kahlo drew her artistic inspiration from her cultural heritage, personal history, and relationships. Nearly a third of her paintings are self-portraits, which fuel current-day fascination with the artist, a turn of events she may never have predicted. Speaking of her paintings, she once remarked, “I think that at least [they] will interest a few people.”
See her work in person at Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Mexican Modernism from the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection at the North Carolina Museum of Art October 26, 2019 through January 19, 2020.
