Image via Complex Original
With her iconic uni-brow, faint mustache, artist husband, and striking self-portraits, Frida Kahlo is easily one of the most recognizable, important artists of all time. Especially in the years after her death, Kahlo remains an inspiration for artists and women everywhere, whether it be Madonna or newer artists like FKA Twigs.
Unfortunately, her reputation as a tortured artist has occasionally overshadowed the revolutionary, gender-defying nature of her work. In attempt to better understand the Mexican painter and to celebrate "Unbound: Contemporary Art After Frida Kahlo" opening at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago today, here are 20 Things You Didn't Know About Frida Kahlo.
She lied about her birth date.
Although her birth certificate says she was born on July 6, 1907, Frida Kahlo told people her date of birth was July 7, 1910. She allegedly did so not to seem younger but simply because she loved her home country, according toThe Life and Times of Frida Kahlo filmmaker Amy Stechler. Kahlo adopted a 1910 birthday so that her birth would coincide with the Mexican Revolution and the start of a modern Mexico.
She groomed her brows with special tools.
Famous for her bushy eyebrows, Kahlo never plucked them, as one might guess. Instead, she actually "groomed them with special tools." She even filled them in to make them darker.
Her dad was of German Protestant descent.
It's easy to forget that Kahlo, an artist usually associated with Mexican folk art, was actually born to a father of German Protestant descent. Guillermo Kahlo's original name was Wilhelm Kahlo, a man even Frida herself presumed to be of Jewish ancestry, journalist Leslie Camhi reported in a piece on Kahlo's roots. A few years ago, however, writers and genealogical researchers revealed that Frida's father actually hailed from a Lutheran family.
Her right leg was skinnier than her left. She hid this by wearing long skirts.
Kahlo wore flowing skirts decorated with colorful flowers to flaunt her indigenous Mexican background. She also did so to conceal a body part. After the artist contracted polio at age six, the disease stunted the growth of her right leg, which she then hid under her long skirts. Many of the dresses she wore went on view in the late artist's Mexico City home a few years ago.
She was in a terrible, life-altering car accident that left her bedridden for months.
This is a slightly more commonly known fact. When Kahlo was just 18-years-old, she was in a car accident that left her severely injured and bedridden for months. It's a miracle that she survived, since an iron handrail also pierced her stomach and uterus—injuries which would later hinder Kahlo from conceiving a child, Discovery News reported.
The artist gave away her self-portraits as gifts.
In fact, Kahlo gave her very first self-portrait Self-Portrait in a Velvet Dress (1926) to Alejandro Gómez Ariasher, who was her boyfriend at the time. She did so not out of vanity but out of a desire to "restore her lover's affection." When Kahlo thought Ariasher was losing interest in her, she presented him with the painting so that he would "keep her in his thoughts."
Kahlo was surrounded by mirrors all her life.
While recovering from the bus accident that left her bedridden for months, Kahlo would paint portraits of herself using a mirror that was attached to her canopy bed. "Frida lived surrounded by mirrors," said Lola Alverez Bravo, a Mexican photographer who documented Kahlo throughout her life. Kahlo had a mirror on the front of her wardrobe, next to her dressing table, and even fixed inside the stucco wall of her outdoor patio. This was probably around the time Kahlo spoke these famous words: "I paint myself because I am often alone, and I am the subject I know best."
She first approached her would-be husband Diego Rivera, asking him what he thought of her art.
Apparently Kahlo was not shy when it came to men. She first approached her would-be-husband Diego Rivera when he was working on a mural at her school. He was one of the most admired artists around the world at the time, and Kahlo proceeded to ask Rivera for advice on how to make it as an artist.
Kahlo and Rivera were active communists.
Both Kahlo and Rivera were active communists. They befriended Leon Trotsky who had fled to Mexico seeking political asylum from Joseph Stalin's regime. That's how Kahlo first became acquainted with the Russian revolutionary.
Kahlo's relationship with Rivera was kind of scandalous.
Although it wouldn't have been a big deal today, Rivera was actually 20 years older than Kahlo. A few years after they met, Kahlo began a relationship with Rivera and eventually married him in 1929, despite her mother's disapproval. It was a passionate yet tumultuous marriage, replete with infidelity. Kahlo supposedly even slept with Leon Trotsky, who was a friend of both artists.
Kahlo had affairs with both men and women.
Kahlo was bisexual and slept with both men and women, including French dancer/singer/actress Josephine Baker and Leon Trotsky. Although Rivera was okay with Kahlo's affairs with other women, he was jealous of the men she slept with.
Rivera cheated on Kahlo with her younger sister Cristina.
At one point, Rivera had an affair with Kahlo's younger sister, Cristina. The couple would eventually divorce in 1939, only to remarry in 1940. Unfortunately, their second marriage wasn't any smoother than the first. After finding out about Rivera and Cristina's affair, Kahlo didn't draw for a year.
When she got back to her easel, she painted this work above. It was inspired by a murder she read about in the local newspaper, which was about a man who believed his wife had cheated on him and stabbed his partner 20 times. Dark.
Kahlo's husband was apparently not the best looking dude.
While Rivera could have made anything pretty with a paint brush, the artist himself was apparently "very large and considered ugly," according to BBC. We'll let you decide.
Kahlo was never able to have kids.
Kahlo actually had to terminate three pregnancies during her lifetime. Despite how badly she wanted a child with Rivera, she could never have a baby because of her health conditions and the permanent injuries she had from the car accident.
The artist actually had a miscarriage with her second child. "I had so looked forward to having a little Dieguito that I cried a lot, but it's over, there is nothing else that can be done except to bear it," she wrote in a letter to her friend, Dr. Eloesser.
Though her story is tragic, there are people who believe Kahlo exaggerated her physical agonies and medical conditions.
"If Frida's physical problems had been as grave as she made out, she would never have been able to translate them into art," wrote Hayden Herrera, an art historian who wrote a famous biography on Kahlo. Famous surgeon Leo Eloesser, who was Kahlo's close friend and medical adviser, suspected that Kahlo actually used her many surgeries to draw attention to herself.
Kahlo had her leg amputated after contracting gangrene.
In case you needed more evidence that Kahlo was not the healthiest person in the world, she actually contracted gangrene. Researchers believe she got the condition during an unnecessary surgery. In the end, she had to amputate her right leg at the knee. The prosthetic leg she wore is pictured above.
When she died, no autopsy was ever conducted.
No one will ever know for sure how Kahlo died since no autopsy was conducted. Officials say the cause of death was pulmonary embolism or a blocked artery, though others suspect the artist may have overdosed on painkillers.
Kahlo had only one major solo exhibition in the United States during her lifetime.
Despite her fame today, Kahlo had only one major solo show go on view in the United States during her lifetime. One of New York's few galleries at the time, Julien Levy Gallery, hosted the 15-day exhibition which included the artist's Fulang-Chang and I, a MoMA curator wrote.
Kahlo is on the 500 Peso bill.
Kahlo and Rivera are actually on Mexico's 500 Peso bill, which is about $50 USD. The banknote went into circulation in August 2010. It features Rivera on the front and Kahlo on the back.
She is the first Hispanic woman to be featured on a US postal stamp.
Both the United States Postal Service and the Servicio Postal Mexicano honored the Mexican artist with a postal stamp back in 2001. Although this may not have been a big deal in Mexico, it caused a bit of controversy in the States. Some people were offended by Kahlo's lifestyle and her ties to communism.