MEXICO Dream

“They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn’t. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.” – Frida Kahlo

Transfixed I started to spontaneously weep. I had never seen a miscarriage so accurately unashamedly articulated. In fact I had seldom seen any miscarriage depicted. Here it was in all its gory vulnerable, tender, powerful and deeply affecting state. And yet after seeing it I felt better. It was like confronting and stepping through a personal trauma portal and feeling lighter for it on the other side. [Here’s my miscarriage story : https://qr.ae/pG3kFJ ].

Henry Ford Hospital, 1932

Frida Kahlo’s vibrant work was of pain and growth and optimism with passionate references of indigenous Mexican culture, nature, her long term partner - Diego Riviera, and of herself (55 of completed 143 paintings were self-portraits). In November 2021, her 1949 painting ‘Diego and I’ sold for $34.9million breaking the record for the most expensive Latin American Painting (and one of the most expensive female artists in history).

Diego and I, 1949

And most recently NFT projects have been cropping up involving her legacy including https://awesomefrida.com/ and https://ezel.life/ where

‘The brick from Frida Kahlo ́s Family home forms the foundation of Ezel.Life's metaverse and connects it with the physical location, where we can all play our part in preserving Frida's legacy’.

Her work and life is heavily documented, countless books and films. The feminist, the disabled, the communist, the seductress, the liberal, the tragic, the optimist, the creative visionary, the fashion icon, the authentic personal brand …. Fridamania is well established. There is not one bad photo of her or selfie painting.

My Birth, 1932

Born in Mexico City on July 6, 1907, one of 4 sisters, Frida Kahlo Kahlo later described the atmosphere in her childhood home as often "very, very sad". At age 6, she had polio which left her with a weak left leg. But it did not deter her from being a curious student. She was initially leaning towards becoming a physcian. Everything changed at age 18, 17 September 1925. She was involved in a horrific accident with a bus and a streetcar. A bus handrail impaled her through her pelvis, which was pulled out of her on site. She later described the injury as "the way a sword pierces a bull." This led to months of recovery followed by bed rest and a life time of operations, wearing corsets and pain. It was also the reason she became a painter.

When she had recovered she approached the then famous painter Diego Riviera (20 years her senior) about career advice which led to a tumultuous passionate relationship with many infidelities including him with her own sister and she with Leon Trotsky.

“There have been two great accidents in my life. One was the train the other was Diego. Diego was by far the worst.”  

She eventually lost her right leg from the knee down due to gangrene, and died in July 1954 from a pulmonary embolism. She was 47 years old.

Her work expresses much of her extraordinary life and character.

The Broken Column, 1944

I had already seen 2 major exhibitions in London prior to visiting Mexico City. But I always wanted to visit The Blue House, Coyoacá.

“La Casa Azul is the Intimate Universe of Frida Kahlo. In this beautiful residence, the artist lived most of her life; initially with her family and years later, with Diego Rivera.” https://www.museofridakahlo.org.mx/en/the-blue-house/

The house is sprawling with gardens and connected buildings. Like anything about Frida Kahlo, there are so many layers and facets and the house feels small with so many artifacts in shelves and walls. Everywhere you look there is some iconography or book or ceramic pieces. It felt crowded but brimming with inspiration, and with visitors (despite Covid restrictions… book tickets well ahead) but at the same time weaving around the museum, you were so close to her objects and untold stories. In fact part of her collection were only discovered in 2004.

It was quite astonishing to be standing in front of her actual bed where she had convalesced and with nothing else to do became a painter of herself.  

“I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best.”