Background: Kahlo was born to the painter and photographer Guilllermo Kahlo and Matilde Calderón y Gonzalez. Her origins were quite varied - her father being a German-Hungarian Jew and her mother being a mix of Spanish and native Mexican. She inherited a striking, unconventional beauty; a slight woman, with a strong jaw, prominent eyebrows and shiny dark hair. She was later to embellish this beauty by depicting herself with trademark joined eyebrows and a thin moustache, perhaps an indication of how she really appeared in her own eyes.
At the age of six, Kahlo contracted Polio, which caused her right leg to become thin and wasted compared to her left. She overcame this disability throughout her adolescence, many say because of her courage and feisty personality.
She had an ambition to become a doctor and was studying for this when, at the age of 18, she was involved in a horrific accident. A bus she was riding in, with her then boyfriend Alejandro Gomez Arias, collided with a tram and turned over, leaving Frida with a long list of serious injuries: broken spinal column, broken collarbone, broken ribs, broken pelvis, and 11 fractures in her right leg. In addition her right foot was dislocated and crushed, and her shoulder was out of joint. An iron bar had pierced her in the abdomen, damaging her uterus beyond repair. She would never be able to have children.
This obviously left her immobilised in hospital for some time. She wrote to Alejandro in 1927: "They're going to change my cast for the third time, this time to keep me immobilized without being able to walk for two or three months, until my spine knits together perfectly, and I don’t know if afterwards they’ll have to operate on me…when you come back you’re really going to be in for a shock when you see how horrible I am with this apparatus. Afterward, I’m going to be a thousand times worse, so you can just imagine: after having been lying down for a month and another month with two different devices, and now two months flat on my back put in a coating of plaster, then six months again with a lighter apparatus so I can walk…Is that enough to drive a person crazy, or not?"
She eventually had a total of 35 operations during her life, and suffered much pain. Nevertheless her recovery was remarkable, that feisty, courageous personality working in her favour yet again, and within four years, she was once more able to walk.

Work: When reading of her difficult early life, it is no wonder to us that Kahlo found a need to outwardly express her pain and suffering. Her hopes of becoming a doctor dashed after the accident, she spent her convalescence painting, and discovered her creative talent.
Her work was not only a stark portrayal of her physical and psychological injuries, but also deeply influenced by traditional Mexican culture. As a result, her 143 paintings included 55 self portraits, usually depicting herself in indigenous clothing.
She is often categorised as a Surrealist, due to the unreal depictions and psychological nature of many of her paintings. She later denied herself to be or have ever been a surrealist, however.
She was introduced to the high flyers of Mexico's artistic community by a close friend, and it was then that she met the painter Diego Rivera. She describes this meeting in her diary:
"I took four little pictures to Diego who was painting up on the scaffolds at the Ministry of Public Education. Without hesitating a moment I said to him, 'Diego, come down,' and so, since he is so humble, so agreeable, he came down. 'Look, I didn’t come to flirt with you or anything, even though you are a womanizer, I came to show you my painting. If it interests you, tell me so, if it doesn’t interest you, tell me that too, so I can get to work on something else to help out my parents.' He told me, 'Look, I’m very much interested in your painting, especially this self-portrait which is the most original. The others seem to me to be influenced by what you’ve seen. Go on home, paint a picture, and next Sunday, I’ll come to see it and tell you.' So I did, and he said, 'You have talent.'"
Her direct nature must have appealed to Rivera, as they soon became lovers, and married in 1929.
They spent many years travelling to America and Europe (Mexico not being a particularly lucrative place for artists at that time), and made their living with Diego's mural commissions and Frida's paintings, selling many in various exhibitions, often with surrealist painters such as Marcel Duchamp. Frida continued to exhibit right up until the last years of her life. Her first solo exhibition in Mexico was held in Zona Rosa at the Galería de Arte Contemporaneo, in 1953. Despite being bed ridden and hospitalised, she attended the opening night on a stretcher after being driven there in an ambulance, and sang and drank in the lively, extroverted manner for which she was most loved.
After having her right leg amputated later that year, she suffered extreme depression. Her death on 13th July 1954 has officially been put down to a pulmonary embolism , but many believe she committed suicide in her depressed state. In her last diary entry she said: "I hope the leaving is joyful; and I hope never to return".

Friends & Relationships: Her marriage to Diego Rivera was turbulent and stormy. The couple divorced briefly, and remarried in 1940. This is said to have been due to Rivera's affair with Kahlo's younger sister Cristina, after which both Kahlo and Rivera rarely remained faithful to one another.
Kahlo never hid the fact that she was bisexual, and had many affairs with both women and men. Rivera is said to have been less understanding about her male lovers than her female ones.
They had many mutual friends, including the well known photographer, actress and communist Tina Modotti, and the exiled Russian communist, Leon Trotsky. It is alleged that Kahlo had a brief affair with him while the couple were harbouring him in Mexico. It is also alleged that Trotsky's murder some years later was committed by another friend of Rivera and Kahlo.

Greatest Achievement: She is considered by many to be one of the great women painters of this century, certainly Mexico's greatest female artist.

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