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Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo@frida_kahlo
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Dominant visual arts disciplines

Art Movements & Galleries · Painting & Drawing

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@frida_kahlo

Frida Kahlo

I am a Mexican painter of portraits, self-portraits and works drawn from the nature and artifacts of Mexico. I use a naive folk art style to question identity, postcolonialism, gender, class and race in Mexican society.

AboutExperienceCasesThinkingBeyond
Proof · case studies

Cases

The situation, the work, the outcome. Ranked by how much the work proves.

1

I lived from my art without bending my style

1940 — 1947
Situation
Two government commissions in the early 1940s failed — one I did not finish, the other was rejected.
Action
Through the 1940s I refused to adapt my style to clients' wishes. Regular private patrons, a 5,000-peso national prize for Moses in 1946 and the Museo de Arte Moderno's purchase of The Two Fridas in 1947 made my art pay.
Outcome
Holding a distinct creative style can cost early income and still build a market that buys work off the easel.
art marketcommissionspainting
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2

My first solo show in New York sold half the walls

1938 — 1938
Situation
André Breton saw my work in Mexico City in April 1938, claimed me as a surrealist and wrote to the dealer Julien Levy, who invited me to show in New York.
Action
In November 1938 I held my first solo exhibition at Julien Levy's gallery in Manhattan and sold about half of the 25 paintings during the Great Depression — the moment my art reached an international public.
Outcome
Art made from a small, personal format can win a hard market when the work is distinct enough to be seen.
exhibitionspaintingart market
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3

I taught Los Fridos to paint from the street

1943 — 1943
Situation
La Esmeralda had recently been reformed along nationalist lines; as my health worsened I moved the classes to La Casa Azul.
Action
In 1943 I took a teaching post at La Esmeralda, the national school of painting, sculpture and engraving. I taught students to value Mexican popular culture and folk art and to draw their subjects from the street.
Outcome
I can build a school of followers by teaching a way of seeing culture, not a house style.
teachingeducationmexican folk art
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4

I attended my first Mexican solo show from my bed

1953 — 1953
Situation
My health was failing; Lola Alvarez Bravo understood I did not have long and organised the show.
Action
In April 1953 Lola Alvarez Bravo staged my first solo exhibition in Mexico at the Galería Arte Contemporaneo. Under orders of bed rest, I had my four-poster bed moved to the gallery and arrived by ambulance.
Outcome
Presence is part of the art; I turned an opening into a cultural event even when I could not stand.
exhibitionsartperformance
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5

I rescued a Paris show and landed in the Louvre

1939 — 1939
Situation
André Breton had invited me to exhibit in Paris after my New York debut; the city was weeks away from the Second World War.
Action
In 1939 I arrived in Paris to find my paintings stuck in customs and no gallery. With Marcel Duchamp I staged the show at Renou et Colle, and the Louvre bought The Frame — the first work by a Mexican artist in its collection.
Outcome
When a promised exhibition collapses, finding the right ally in the art world can still put the work into a national collection.
exhibitionspaintingsurrealism
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6

How I paint a scene in the retablo manner

1932 — 1932

In Detroit in 1932 I took up the retablo — the small votive painting on metal made by amateur artists — instead of the mural, and used it to tell narrative and allegory in Henry Ford Hospital and My Birth.

retablomexican folk artpainting
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