FREEFRIDA: THE BIOGRAPHY OF FRIDA KAHLO EBOOK Hayden Herrera | 528 pages | 03 Mar 2003 | Bloomsbury Publishing PLC | 9780747566137 | English | London, United Kingdom Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera She grew up in the family's home where was later referred to as the Blue House or Casa Azul. Her father is a German descendant and photographer. He immigrated to Mexico where he met and married her mother Matilde. Her mother is half Amerindian and half Spanish. Frida Kahlo has two older sisters and one younger sister. Frida Kahlo has poor health in her childhood. She contracted polio at the age of 6 and had to be bedridden for nine months. This disease caused her right leg and foot to grow much thinner than her left one. She limped after she recovered from polio. She has been wearing long skirts to cover that for the rest of her life. Her father encouraged her to do lots of sports to help her recover. She played soccer, went swimming, and even did wrestle, which is very unusual at that time for a girl. She has kept a very close relationship with her father for her whole life. There are only thirty-five female students enrolled in that school and she soon became famous for her outspokenness and bravery. At this school she first met the famous Mexican muralist Diego Rivera for the first time. Rivera at that time was working on a mural called The Creation on the school campus. Frida often watched it and she told a friend she will marry him someday. In the same year, Kahlo joined a gang of students who shared similar political and intellectual views. She Frida: The Biography of Frida Kahlo in love with the leader Alejandro Gomez Arias. On a September afternoon when she traveled with Gomez Arias on a bus the tragic accident happened. The bus collided with a streetcar and Frida Kahlo was seriously injured. A steel handrail impaled her through the hip. Her spine and pelvis are fractured and this accident left her in a great deal of pain, both physically and physiologically. After that, she returned home for further recovery. She had to wear full-body cast for three months. To kill the time and alleviate the pain, she started painting and finished her first self-portrait the following year. Her parents encouraged her to paint and made a special easel made for her so she could paint in bed. They also gave her brushes and boxes of paints. Frida Kahlo reconnected with Rivera in She asked him to evaluate her work and he encouraged her. The two soon started the romantic relationship. Despite her mother's objection, Frida and Diego Rivera got married in the next year. During their earlier years as a married couple, Frida had to move a lot based on Diego's work. Inthey lived in San Francisco, California. InKahlo added more realistic and surrealistic components in her painting style. In the painting titled Henry Ford HospitalFrida Frida: The Biography of Frida Kahlo lied on a hospital bed naked and was surrounded with a few things floating around, which includes a fetus, a flower, a pelvis, a snail, all connected by veins. This painting was an expression of her feelings about her second miscarriage. It is as personal as her other self-portraits. Rivera tried to include Vladimir Lenin in the painting, who is a communist leader. Rockefeller stopped his work and that part Frida: The Biography of Frida Kahlo painted over. The couple had to move back to Mexico after this incident. They returned and live in San Angel, Mexico. Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera's marriage is not a usual one. They had been keeping separate homes and studios for all those years. Diego had so many affairs and one of that was with Kahlo's sister Cristina. Frida Kahlo was so sad and she cut off her long hair to show her desperation to the betrayal. She has longed for children but she cannot bear one due to the bus accident. She was heartbroken Frida: The Biography of Frida Kahlo she experienced a second miscarriage in Kahlo and Rivera have been separated a few times but they always went back together. In they helped Leon Trotsky and his wife Natalia. Leon Trotsky is an exiled communist and rival of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Kahlo and Rivera welcomed the couple together and let them stay at her Blue House. Kahlo also had a brief affair with Leon Trotsky when the couple stayed at her house. InFrida Kahlo became a friend of Andre Breton, who is one of the primary figures of the Surrealism movement. She sold some of her paintings and got two commissions. The patron Luce Frida: The Biography of Frida Kahlo horrified and almost destroyed this painting. The next year,Kahlo was invited by Andre Breton and went to Paris. Her works are exhibited there and she is befriended with artists such as Marc ChagallPiet Mondrianand Pablo Picasso. She and Rivera got divorced that year and she painted one of her most famous paintings, The Two Fridas But soon Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera remarried in The second marriage is about the same as the first one. They still keep separate lives and houses. Both of them had infidelities with other people during the marriage. Kahlo received a commission from the Mexican government for five portraits of important Mexican women inbut she was unable to finish the project. She lost her beloved father that year and continued to suffer from chronic health problems. Despite her personal challenges, her work continued to grow in popularity and was included in numerous group Frida: The Biography of Frida Kahlo around this time. In this painting, she depicted herself naked and split down the middle. Her spine is shattered like a column. She wears a surgical brace and there are nails all through her body, which is the indication of the consistent pain she went through. In this painting, Frida expressed her physical challenges through her art. During that time, she had a few surgeries and Frida: The Biography of Frida Kahlo to wear special corsets to protect her back spine. She seeks lots of medical treatment for her chronic pain but nothing really worked. Her health condition has been worsening in That year she was diagnosed Frida: The Biography of Frida Kahlo gangrene in her right foot. She became bedridden for the next nine month and had to stay in hospital and had several surgeries. But with great persistence, Frida Kahlo continued to work and paint. In the year ofshe had a solo exhibition in Mexican. Although she had limited mobility at that time, she showed up on the exhibition's opening ceremony. She arrived by ambulance, and welcomed the attendees, celebrated the ceremony in a bed the gallery set up for her. A few months later, she had to accept another surgery. Part of her right leg got amputated to stop the gangrene. With the poor physical condition, she is also deeply depressed. She even had an inclination for suicide. Frida Kahlo has been out and in hospital during that year. But despite her health issues, she has been active with the political movement. This is her last public appearance. About one week after her 47th birthday, Frida Kahlo passed away at her beloved Bule House. She was publicly reported to die of a pulmonary embolism, but there is speculation which was saying she died of a possible suicide. Frida Kahlo's fame has been growing after her death. Her Blue House was opened as a museum in the year of In the s the interest in her work and life is renewed due to the feminist movement since she was viewed as an icon of female creativity. InHayden Herrera published his book on her, A Biography Frida: The Biography of Frida Kahlo Frida Kahlowhich drew more attention from the public to this great artist. All Rights Reserved. Toggle navigation Frida Kahlo. Frida Kahlo Biography. Frida: The Biography of Frida Kahlo of Frida Kahlo Blue House. The Two Fridas. Viva la Vida, Watermelons. The Wounded Table. Frida Kahlo biography Frida always claimed to be born onthe year of the outbreak of the Mexican revolution, so that people could directly associate her with the modern Mexico. This detail well introduces us to a singular personality, characterized since her childhood by a deep sense of independence and rebellion against ordinary social and moral habits, moved by passion and sensuality, proud of her "Mexicanidad" and cultural tradition set against the reigning Americanization: everything mixed with a peculiar sense of humour. Her life was marked by physical suffering, started with the polio contracted at the age of five and worsen by her life-dominating event occurred in A bus accident caused severe injuries to her body Frida: The Biography of Frida Kahlo to a pole that pierced her from the stomach to the pelvis. The medicine of her time tortured her body with surgical operations 32 throughout her lifecorsets of different kinds and mechanical "stretching" systems. Lots of her works were painted laying in the bed. Drawing on personal experiences, her miscarriages, and her numerous operations, Kahlo's works are often characterized by portrayals of pain. Of her paintings, 55 are self-portraits which Frida: The Biography of Frida Kahlo incorporate symbolic portrayals of physical and psychological wounds. As a young artist, Kahlo approached the famous Mexican painter, Diego Rivera, who recognized her talent and her unique expression as truly special and uniquely Mexican. He encouraged her development as an artist and soon began an intimate relationship with Frida.