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Born:
Artist Frida Kahlo was born Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón in Coyocoán, Mexico City, Mexico. -
Polio:
Around the age of 6, she contracted polio, which caused her to be bedridden for nine months. While she did recover from the illness, she limped when she walked because the disease had damaged her right leg and foot. -
Bus Accident:
Kahlo and Gómez Arias were traveling together on a bus when the vehicle collided with a streetcar. As a result of the collision, Kahlo was impaled by a steel handrail, which went into her hip and came out the other side. She suffered several serious injuries as a result, including fractures in her spine and pelvis. -
Marriage:
They wed in 1929 (he was 42, she was 22) much to the disapproval of Frida's parents, who referred to the couple as "the elephant and the dove." With volatile tempers and countless infidelities, the marriage was notoriously tumultuous. The couple separated in 1939, however reconnected in 1940. And remarried that same year. http://www.biography.com/people/groups/frida-kahlo-and-diego-rivera -
Miscarriage:
First miscarriage occur while Diego and Frida were separated. This was heartbreaking for her, as she longed for children. -
Communism:
She and Rivera went through periods of separation, but they joined together to help exiled Soviet communist Leon Trotsky and his wife Natalia in 1937. The Trotskys came to stay with them at the Blue House for a time in 1937 as Trotsky had received asylum in Mexico. Once a rival of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, Trotsky feared that he would be assassinated by his old nemesis. Kahlo and Trotsky reportedly had a brief affair during this time. -
Two Fridas:
This portrait shows Frida's two different personalities. One is the traditional Frida in Tehuana costume, with a broken heart, sitting next to an independent, modern dressed Frida. In Frida's dairy, she wrote about this painting and said it is originated from her memory of an imaginary childhood friend. Later she admitted it expressed her desperation and loneliness with the separation from Diego. -
Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird:
Frida Kahlo put so many symbolic creatures in this painting. She was not painting a realistic scene but using these symbolic elements to express her feelings. A bird is often symbolize freedom and life. Especially hummingbird which is colorful and always hovering above flowers. But in this painting the humming bird is black and lifeless. This might be a symbol of Frida herself. Frida spent most of her life in physical pain after the bus accident. This is a painting about her suffering. -
Borken Columns, Self Portrait:
By 1944, Kahlo's doctors had recommended that she wear a steel corset instead of the plaster casts she had worn previously. In The Broken Column this corset holds together Kahlo's damaged body. -
Death:
Kahlo died on July 13 at her beloved Blue House. There has been some speculation regarding the nature of her death. It was reported to be caused by a pulmonary embolism, but there have also been stories about a possible suicide.
