Frida Kahlo

Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo Calderón (1907-1954) was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Inspired by the country's popular culture, she employed a naïve folk art style to explore questions of identity, postcolonialism, gender, class, and race in Mexican society.

At age six, Kahlo contracted polio, which left her right leg thinner than her left. At 18, she was in a devastating bus accident that broke her spinal column, collarbone, ribs, and pelvis - she would undergo over 30 surgeries in her lifetime. It was during her long recovery that she began painting.

Her work is celebrated for its unflinching exploration of the human body, pain, passion, and identity. Of her 143 paintings, 55 are self-portraits. She said, 'I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best.'

Her tumultuous marriage to muralist Diego Rivera was marked by affairs, divorce, remarriage, and deep creative partnership. She was politically active, a committed communist who hosted Leon Trotsky in her home.

Largely overlooked during her lifetime, Kahlo's work has been recognized since the 1970s as a foundational contribution to feminist art, and she has become one of the most recognizable figures in popular culture worldwide.