Frida Kahlo: The Self and the Scandal (2024)

To say the least, Frida Kahlo lived a turbulent life. A world-renowned painter, marital cheater, and politically active communist, she was born in 1907 and soon contracted the highly dangerous disease polio in 1913. Tragically, in 1925, a bus struck her while she traveled with her boyfriend Alejandro Gómez Arias, breaking her spinal column, collarbone, ribs, pelvis, and eleven spots on her leg. Additionally, during the accident an iron handrail pierced her from the abdomen through the pelvis. In her own words, the handrail impaled her “the way a sword pierces a bull.” It was while recovering from this injury that Frida began painting.

Family life also treated her darkly. Likely as a result of the handrail, she later dealt with three miscarriages and never had a child. Married twice to Diego Rivera, both partners lived promiscuous lifestyles full of many affairs on both ends: for starters, Diego cheated on his wife with her own sister and Frida had relations with Leon Trotsky himself.

Not all in her life was gloom, though her journey reeked of gray. Higher in value because of scarcity, sparks of gold light up her story. Unfortunately, most of those are posthumous; she did not truly become appreciated, as many painters can attest, until after her demise. Nevertheless, her works are appreciable and brim with meaning.

Frida Kahlo, The Painter

Very interestingly, and doubtless not a coincidence, Kahlo’s painting career began as she healed from her injuries from the bus accident. In fact, it was about a year after her release from the hospital the first time that the hospital readmitted her and discovered several displaced vertebrae. The solution? A tight, plastic full torso cast to straighten her spinal cord. Since Kahlo needed something to distract herself, she requested of her father (who painted as a hobby) a canvas and some brushes. Gladly, he brought her the tools as well as a mirror so she could see herself as she painted, perhaps as a form of self-critique.

She painted a few paintings before her first self-portrait: as early as 1924, a year before the accident, she painted Tray of Poppies. As she convalesced in 1925, she created a still life of roses and an urban landscape.

Finally, she delved into the self-portrait in 1926, beginning with Self-portrait in a Velvet Dress. It is considered Kahlo’s “earliest important work,” “her first serious work,” and “her first real painting.” An interesting factoid tells that the Italian Renaissance greatly influenced Kahlo, which possibly led to her very stately and serene pose. It could also have been an attempt to usurp inner feelings of dissatisfaction or restlessness by portraying herself as composed and peaceful.

As Mexican nationalism replaced it, the Italian renaissance influence faded throughout her career. Frida Kahlo always leaned far left to the point of publicly supporting communism. In fact, hearkening back to her bus accident, her boyfriend Alejandro led a group called the Cachuchas, a faction of students with radical political ideas. The pair split in 1928 after Alejandro failed to ever visit her in the hospital, but as I read her list of paintings, one jumps out at me. It is a painting from 1928 entitled Portrait of Alejandro Gómez Arias. Did she paint it as an act of desperation? A plea? If it proceeded the breakup, did the painting serve as consolation or a coping mechanism?

Interestingly, Frida met Diego Rivera, Alejandro’s replacement, in 1928. Perhaps Diego, too, served as consolation. With cheaters on either side, there is no doubt that their relationship had flaws and scars.

Frida Kahlo, The Cheater

On August 21, 1929, Kahlo and Rivera marry, and her first painting after the wedding already shows a clear alteration in her artistic style. From the beginning of the marriage, there was infidelity on both sides, but issues would come to a head in 1935.

Reminiscent of Mannerist painter Il Bronzino, an exaggerated long neck is visible, just as in her first self-portrait. Note the title - time flies - and the clock and airplane combination featured in the background.

In 1931, Kahlo painted her first marriage portrait, which critics and analysts have heavily examined, saying, “Kahlo tries on the role of wife to see how it fits” and others, like Margaret Lindauer, say conversely that Kahlo still depicts herself as the primary artist in the painting. It is as if she assumes the viewer knows she is an artist but must be told Rivera is one also.

The banner reads, “Aquí nos veis, a mí, Frida Kahlo, junto con mi amado esposo Diego Rivera. Pinté estos retratos en la bella ciudad de San Francisco, California, para nuestro amigo Mr. Albert Bender y fue en el mes de abril del año 1931" which in English says, "Here you see us, me Frieda Kahlo, with my dearest husband Diego Rivera. I painted these pictures in the delightful city of San Francisco California for our companion Mr. Albert Bender, and it was in the month of April of the year 1931.”

Kahlo painted Henry Ford Hospital in 1932, which was one of her most influential paintings. Unfortunately, I’m not sure whether or not I am allowed to show it on this platform (and probably cannot) because it depicts her naked in childbirth. As it depicts one of the greatest tragedies, a stillborn child, the painting is full of grief and emotion. I would recommend you look it up.

In 1934, the marriage between Rivera and Kahlo erupted when Diego Rivera foolishly and greedily chose to share relations with Frida’s younger sister Cristina. Kahlo left (but did not divorce) Rivera in 1935 when she discovered, as that scandal became her breaking point. It was not the only affair - Rivera had affairs with artist Maria Izquierdo and actress Paulette Goddard. Kahlo also cheated. In the end, a sister was too close for forgiveness. Frida Kahlo left her husband and, during her mourning period, painted the bloody and rapturously sad portrait A Few Small Nips (1935), which I also cannot show for different reasons.

Also as a result of the affair with Cristina, Kahlo painted Memory, the Heart in 1937. This one I can show.

Symbolically, Kahlo’s heart bleeds into the ocean as she stands, sandwiched by a pair of dresses, with a spear thrust through her heart. Like a seesaw, the spear has a painting of Cupid on either side, perhaps representing the tumultuous and unstable state of Kahlo’s heart. In each dress, one arm dangles; the left dress is a schoolgirl outfit, while the right dress is Kahlo’s traditional Tehuantepec-style costume that she wore in many of her self-portraits.

In 1937, although still married to Rivera technically (not that she would have cared, most likely, with as common as affairs were), Frida Kahlo welcomed Leon Trotsky, the Russian communist leader, and had an affair with him. In the same year, she painted a self-portrait for her hero (she had been an avid supporter of Trotsky for over a decade; see the section below).

Coincidentally, I learned a very interesting fun fact while researching this painting. On Trotsky’s birthday, Kahlo gave him this painting; as it happens, Trotsky’s birthday is also the anniversary of the October Revolution (also known as the Bolshevik Revolution).

It was in 1937 that Kahlo began to paint prolifically. She had 45 paintings before 1937, and something like 105 (I may have counted wrong) after it. Interestingly, it seems that when Kahlo married Rivera, both in 1929 and in 1940 (spoiler alert), her rate of painting decreased dramatically. In any case, I don’t have time to tell of every painting, so I’m going to skip ahead in her biography/portfolio to the next significant event in her life. I’ll breeze over her first solo exhibition in 1938 and her subsequent formal divorce in 1939. In 1940, as you know, the two remarried.

That same year, she produced The Wounded Table, among many others. The Wounded Table is a complex and symbolic painting full of blood and bones. It was not her first painting after remarriage (that was Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair).

Over the next several years, little changed in her lifestyle. She remained remarried to Rivera, but numerous affairs marked the union. Kahlo and Rivera both painted prolifically, and Rivera remained the more popular artist, which is inevitable, as Kahlo never became appreciated until after her death. Following are some of those many paintings by Kahlo.

This painting is rich in cultural language and emotional depth. The hummingbird could be interpreted as one of two things in Mexican culture: either a pendant of good luck for falling in love, or a symbol of Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of war.

Kahlo continued painting until her death in 1954, but her era of torrid, illicit romances had passed. Next began the resurgence of intense political leftism.

Frida Kahlo, The Communist

Throughout her life, Frida Kahlo supported politics and engaged actively in various factions and political groups. At the end of her career, however, she became exceptionally engaged in politics. In 1948, she rejoined the Mexican Communist Party (from 1927-29 she had also been in it, but left as an act of solidarity for the fire Trotsky came under from Stalin), and over the last decade of her life during which she was an active communist, she painted three communist paintings, all in a small two-year period.

It was her last painting before the end. On July 13, 1954, Frida Kahlo died after a life scant of joy and scarce of trust.

Frida Kahlo, The Message

What can we draw from Frida Kahlo? I think her work exhibits an interesting angle on the power of pain. There’s no doubt that, wounded, betrayed, and broken as she was, Frida Kahlo used her pain for powerful art. In fact, the pain gave power to the art.

Was it worth it? You’d have to ask Frida, but I think it wasn’t. I expect Frida would instantly have preferred a life free of physical pain, a happy marriage, and a long, blissful, quiet life; yet Frida had a passion, a spark that became a flame that became a conflagration that turned the world of self-portraiture upside down. Perhaps that fire would have her choose the same fate every time and would lead her to prefer a life of grief, but I’ll let you decide.

Thank you for reading Journeys are Gray and Gold! I hope you enjoyed and found this article to be an interesting use of your time. I certainly enjoyed researching and writing it! If you did like it and want to see more, be sure to follow me below as it’s completely free; or, have a friend? Share with them, also below but less below.

Additionally, here are my sources for the article’s content. Professor Graeme Yorston's video on Kahlo is one, as well as Frida Kahlo's website, an article from The Art Story, one from Britannica, obviously some information from Wikipedia, and lastly, this biography.