Frida Kahlo Exposed Her Soul on Canvas

Frida Kahlo Exposed Her Soul on Canvas

Frida Kahlo was born in Mexico City on July 7, 1907. Though she wanted many to believe that she was born in 1910, the year of the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution. Her father was a photographer of Hungarian Jewish decent, and her mother was Spanish and Native American. From an early age Frida's life would be marked by years of physical suffering. At the age of six she was stricken with polio, this left her right leg to appear much thinner than the other, as well as leaving her with a limp. Though she suffered dearly as a child, she was fearless and brave. She was also extremely intelligent.

In 1922 she entered the Preparatoria, the most prestigious educational institution in Mexico, which had only just begun to admit girls. She was one of the only thirty-five girls out of the two thousand students. It was there that she met Diego Rivera, the man that she would eventually marry. In 1925, Frida was involved in a horrific bus accident that would alter the way she would live her life from that point on. She seriously injured her spine, abdomen, pelvis, and right foot. Frida was forced to stay flat on her back, encased in a plaster cast and enclosed in a box like structure for months. Though she survived the accident, the wounds that she suffered led to a lifelong physical battle with pain. Frida eventually regained her ability to walk, but she had many relapses, which caused her to be hospitalized for long periods of time, and also caused her to undergo numerous operations (32 throughout her life). It was her accident that led her to the path of becoming an artist. Frida initially started painting out of boredom. She would go on to paint many of her masterpieces while being confined to...

... middle of paper ...

...he opening, she of course refused to listen to the doctors and at the last minute she arrived at her exhibition on a hospital stretcher. A few months later she had to have her right leg amputated below the knee, due to a persistent infection. This caused her to spiral into a deep depression. She eventually attempted suicide several times. On July 13, 1954, Frida died. No official autopsy was done, it was a rumored suicide. Her last words in her diary read "I hope the leaving is joyful and I hope never to return". Frida Kahlo would leave behind a legacy of paintings that illustrates the beautiful and talented woman that she was. She offered the world so much beauty, though her time here was spent in such tremendous pain. I only wonder if she would have been able to create such masterpieces without going through such physical and emotional difficulties. Probably not.