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Frida Kahlo: 1907 – 1954

July 6, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

Frida Kahlo - Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird 1940Born on July 6, 1907, in Coyoacán Mexico, Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón is one of the most internationally known Mexican painters of our time. Kahlo survived many difficult events in her life including polio around the age of six, and a bus accident that left her permanently disabled.

Kahlo did not intend to be an artist and, before her accident, was enrolled at the National Preparatory School in Mexico City in the premedical program. She began painting while recovering from her injuries that left her bedridden for over a year.

Frida’s paintings were mostly self-portraits and dealt directly with her health, physical challenges, and sexuality. With no formal training, Kahlo painted in vibrant colours and her style was influenced by the tradition of Mexican folk art and European styles including Realism, Symbolism, and Surrealism.

In 1929, Kahlo met muralist Diego Rivera who was enthusiastic and supportive of her work. With their art and mutual support of Communism in common, they fell in love and despite their 20-year age difference, married the same year. Their relationship was a stormy and passionate one, filled with infidelities on both sides, the pressures of Rivera’s fame, and Kahlo’s poor health.  The couple eventually divorced, but then remarried in 1940.

Kahlo and Rivera traveled to the United States and France, where they connected with influential artists and politicians of the time. Frida had her first solo exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York City in 1938 and achieved some success during the 1940s. As well, during this time, Kahlo taught art and her students became known as Los Fridos.

Kahlo produced around 200 images in her lifetime. Despite more than 30 operations, she spent her life in constant pain and had several miscarriages. Frida Kahlo died on July 13, 1954 at the age of 47. Doctors reported her death as a pulmonary embolism, relating to pneumonia, although it is also suspected that she committed suicide through an overdose.

Kahlo was described as a “self-invented Surrealist” by André Breton in 1938, but she disagreed saying “They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn’t. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.”

Frida Kahlo - The-Little-Deer - 1946
Frida Kahlo - Without Hope - 1945
Frida Kahlo - Portrait-of-Dona-Rosita-Morillo - 1944
Frida Kahlo The Love Embrace of The Universe The Earth Mexico Myself Diego And senor Xolotl, 1949
Frida Kahlo - What-the-Water-Gave-Me - 1938
Frida Kahlo - Tree-of-Hope - 1946
Frida Kahlo - Self-Portrait-with-the-Portrait-of-Dr-Farill - 1951
Frida Kahlo - Self-Portrait-with-Loose-Hair - 1947
Frida Kahlo - Self-Portrait - 1926
Frida Kahlo - Roots
Frida Kahlo - Self-Portrait-as-a-Tehuana -1943
Frida Kahlo - Henry-Ford-Hospital - 1932
Frida Kahlo - Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird 1940
Frida Kahlo - The Two Fridas las_dos_friidas 1939

Sources:  Tate Museum, MOMA, Wikipedia, SFMOMA,  Artchive

Filed Under: ART, Art History, Painting Tagged With: Frida Kahlo, Mexican Art, Surrealism

5 Women Artists You Should Know

July 2, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

Frida Kahlo - The Broken Column1. Frida Kahlo – July 6, 1907 – July 13, 1954. Born in  Coyoacán, Mexico, Kahlo survived many difficult events in her life. She began to paint while recovering in bed from a bus accident in 1925 that left her disabled. Although she made a partial recovery, she was never able to bear  children, had numerous miscarriages, and underwent 32 operations before her death. Her paintings, mostly self-portraits, deal directly with her health and physical challenges. Kahlo was influenced by indigenous cultures of Mexico and European influences including Realism, Symbolism, and Surrealism.

Kahlo’s work was not widely recognized until years after her death. She was often remembered only as artist Diego Rivera’s wife. It was not until the early 1980s, when the artistic movement in Mexico known as Neomexicanismo began, that she became very prominent.

The Child's Bath - Mary Cassatt2. Mary Cassatt – May 22, 1844 – June 14, 1926. Known for her depictions of women and children, Cassatt was one of the few active American artists in 19th century French avant-garde. The daughter of a prominent Pittsburgh family, she studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. She traveled throughout Europe,  settling permanently in Paris in 1874. In that year she exhibited at the Salon and in 1877 met Degas, with whom she maintained a close relationship. His art and ideas had a strong influence on her own work though she did not imitate his style. He introduced her to the Impressionists and she participated in several exhibitions between 1879 – 1886.

While in France, Cassatt sent paintings back to exhibitions in the United States that were among the first impressionist works seen in the US. By advising wealthy American patrons on acquisitions, she also played a vital role in forming some of the most important collections of impressionist art in America.

Blunden Harbour - Emily Carr3. Emily Carr – December 13, 1871 – March 2, 1945. Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Carr moved to San Francisco in 1890 to study art after the death of her parents. In 1899 she traveled to England to study at the Westminster School of Art in London and other studio schools in England. In 1910, she spent a year studying art at the Académie Colarossi in Paris, France before moving back to British Columbia permanently.

Carr was strongly influenced by the landscape and First Nations cultures of British Columbia and Alaska. She did not receive recognition as an artist until she was 57 years of age.  In the 1920s she came into close contact with members of the prominent Group of Seven (artists) after being invited by the National Gallery of Canada to participate in an exhibition of Canadian West Coast Art, Native and Modern. She maintained a close relationship with the group and was included in their exhibitions.

Emily Carr is a Canadian icon.  The fact that she was a woman challenged by the obstacles that faced women of her day, to become an artist of such originality and strength has made her a “darling of the Women’s Movement”.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono - Annie Leibovitz4. Annie Leibovitz – October 2, 1949 – present.  Born in 1949 in Connecticut, USA Leibovitz studied painting at the San Francisco Art Institute. She became interested in photography  when she lived in the Philippines, where her father was stationed during the Vietnam War with the Air Force.

Leibovitz began photographing for Rolling Stone magazine in 1969 while still a student in San Francisco. Famous for her iconic images of celebrities, including John Lennon and Yoko Ono, in 1983 she became chief photographer for Vanity Fair. A regular contributor to Vogue as well, she is the winner of numerous awards and her work has been exhibited around the world. In addition to her portraiture, she has also photographed battered women, and the conflicts in Sarajevo, Bosnia, and Rwanda. In 2005, American Photo named her the single most influential photographer working today.

Early Skating - Anna Mary Robertson Moses5. Anna Mary Robertson Moses – September 7, 1860 – December 13, 1961. Born in a farming community in Greenwich, N. Y, “Grandma Moses” began painting in her seventies after leaving a career in embroidery due to arthritis. A self-taught, renowned folk artist, Moses painted mostly scenes of rural life. In the years directly after World-War-II, Moses was one of the most successful and famous artists in America, and possibly the best known American artist in Europe.

Her simple realism and nostalgic subject matter with which she portrayed farm life and the rural countryside, gained her a large following. She was a prolific painter and during her lifetime she created more than 1,000 paintings.  Moses received honorary doctoral degrees from Russell Sage College in 1949 and from the Moore Institute of Art, Science and Industry, Philadelphia, in 1951.

Sources: MOMA, Wikipedia, National Gallery of Art, Webmuseum Paris, Canadian Encyclopedia, Art History Archive, Contact Press Images, Wikipedia, New York Times

Filed Under: 5 Women Artists Series, ART, Women in Visual Arts Tagged With: Anna Mary Robertson Moses, Annie Leibovitz, Emily Carr, Frida Kahlo, Grandma Moses, Mary Cassatt

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