Art
1907–1954 · Mexican
Surrealism / Mexicanidad
Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter best known for intense, symbolic self-portraits that explore pain, identity, the body and Mexican culture. Left with lifelong injuries after a bus accident, she painted her own suffering and her stormy marriage to the muralist Diego Rivera, and has become a global icon of art and feminism.
The Two Fridas (1939)
Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City
Two seated Fridas hold hands — one in a white European dress, one in Tehuana dress — their exposed hearts joined by a vein; painted around her divorce
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Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird (1940)
Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin
A thorn necklace draws blood, a dead black hummingbird hangs from it, with a monkey and a black cat at her shoulders
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The Broken Column (1944)
Museo Dolores Olmedo, Mexico City
Her torso split open to show a crumbling Ionic column for a spine, her body studded with nails and held in a corset
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Henry Ford Hospital (1932)
Museo Dolores Olmedo, Mexico City
Painted in Detroit after a miscarriage: she lies bleeding on a hospital bed linked by red ribbons to floating objects
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Frieda and Diego Rivera (1931)
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Wedding portrait: a tiny Frida beside her huge husband, who holds his palette
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The Wounded Deer (1946)
Private collection
A stag with Frida's head, pierced by arrows, standing in a forest
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