Frida Kahlo: A Life Obsessed with Death

Frida Kahlo, the renowned impressionist artist, had a profound impact on modern art. Despite the various hindrances that she encountered during her lifetime, she achieved recognition in her profession as a woman and racial minority.
Ever since her birth in the humble Coyoacán, Mexico, Kahlo faced obstacles that made being the ordinary girl that she wanted to be, difficult. At age six, she contracted polio. For months she was bedridden, leaning upon her family for support; unwavering in her efforts to combat the deadly disease. She courageously overcame it, although developing a mortal impediment of damage of right leg and foot. She then went on to be become a spirited student trying to prove to herself and others that she could be independent and successful, which were not always expected of a typical Latina in the early nineteen hundreds. This was a time when Mexico was being revolutionized, not only politically but also culturally. The arts were embraced, and people like Kahlo and Rivera (her artist husband) were recognized as influencers and surrealists, not merely street folk trying to earn a living. This was a time that Kahlo wanted to be part of. If people did not understand her, she would express herself though her passion: painting. “Painting completed my life.”
Frida fell in love with painting after a very eventful tragedy. During the course of traveling on a bus, it collided with a car, thus being impaled by a steal handrail. She suffered several serious injuries, including fractures in her spine and pelvis. “I tried to drown my sorrows, but the bastards learned how to swim …” While recovering, something, which she had discovered, had brought her some much needed hope; her talent of sketching and painting. Since then her work has been celebrated in Mexico as emblematic of national and indigenous tradition to this day. Kahlo also captured the attention of many feminists through her work; for its resolute depiction of the female experience and form.
Frida was a major influence on the artist movement of ‘Surrealism’. A majority of her works were self-portraits. For, “I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the