Frida Kahlo: Painting Her Own Reality

Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) learned about suffering at an early age. She contracted polio when she was six and was seriously maimed in a bus accident at the age of eighteen, which led to injuries that affected her for the rest of her life. She had a legendarily turbulent marriage to the great mural painter Diego Rivera, with whom she formed a strong attachment to indigenous Mexican folk art and a deep commitment to Communism. Admired by the Surrealists and photographed by the greatest artists, Frida was most renowned for her self-portraits and symbolic, highly detailed still lifes. This book traces the extraordinary life of an artist whose unforgettable imagery combined cruelty and wit, honesty and insolence, pain and empowerment.