I have a habit of looking around at the fine art section in book shops. One day a book cover caught my eyes. It showed a portrait of a woman with unibrow and her dark hair tied up. She looked bold. Below her face were two big words, Frida Khalo. The portrait looked exotic to me. I was curious about who Frida Kahlo was, what she did and what her art looked like.

After browsing several websites (see links below), I learnt that Frida Khalo was a self-taught Mexican painter borne in 1907. Her father was a German and her mother was a Mexican. Her life was not easy. She suffered from polio when she was just 6 years old. Because of this disease, she needed to stay in her bed for nine months. When she was eighteen, she almost died in a bus accident. Her spine, collarbone, ribs, pelvis, foot and shoulder were all injured. She needed to lay in a plaster body cast. Even when she could return home, she had to have complete bed rest. The recovery process was as long as around three years. This is the period when she began to paint. She was later married to Diego Rivera, an artist and a womanizer. Though she longed for babies, she experienced miscarriage and could not have a child of her and her beloved husband. She was heart broken when her husband had an affair with her own sister. She divorced, but remarried Diego one year later. And she died at age 47.

Her work is not like Edward Hopper’s realist painting. Frida’s work is representational yet dreamy. Perhaps this is why André Breton called Frida a surrealist. Frida, however, denied this label because she was painting her reality and not dreams. It is true. Frida’s paintings are like a photo album of her life, recording important events and her feelings throughout her life. The Broken Column records her feelings after her surgery on her spinal column. Henry Ford Hospital is associated with her miscarriage. Memory, the Heart and The Two Fridas describe her heart-broken feelings towards her husband’s affair and divorce.

Among Frida’s hundreds of works, I found The Broken Column most unforgettable. In this painting, Frida’s spinal column is broken but she stands straight, probably with the help of the metallic closet. Her body is covered with nails of different sizes, signaling the pain. Though tears appear around Frida’s face, her expression does not show sadness. The painter might want to convey the message that she could cope with the pain with her strong will. This painting touches me as I have similar experience. My back was slightly injured in a mild car accident. I needed bed rest for few months. I could imagine hundred times or thousand times of physical and emotional pain Frida experienced. I admired how she coped with her injury and attempted to live strongly.

More on Frida Khalo:

https://www.moma.org/artists/2963

https://artsandculture.google.com/project/frida-kahlo

https://www.fridakahlo.org/frida-kahlo-biography.jsp

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Frida Khalo (1907 - 1954)