Arts & Culture

A Life, A Tragedy, A Triumph - The World of Frida Kahlo [advanced]

Vocabulary Key: Mix and Match

"Frida and Diego Rivera" (The Wedding Portrait)," 1931 Photo credit: Courtesy of Banco de Mexico, Fideicomiso Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo Images-Life and Times of Frida Kahlo, The - WETA TV 26/ 90.9 FM - Washington, D.C.

Mexican painter Frida Kahlo once said: "I have suffered two serious accidents in my life, one when a street car ran over me... and one was Diego."

It was these two accidents that shaped the artist's life of vision, suffering and ultimate victory.

The daughter of German-born photographer Guillermo Kahlo, Frida first became known through her alliance and marriage with the celebrated Mexican muralist Diego Rivera.

Sadly, her life was one of tragedy and suffering, yet through her pain some of her best artwork was born. Frida used her paintings as a poetic outlet to reflect her tattered soul, her damaging relationship with Diego and her torn self-image .

Frida Kahlo was born in 1907 in the outskirts of Mexico City. Later, she revised her birth date to 1910 to coincide with the Mexican revolution. Young Frida closely identified with the struggle of her people. By age 18 she acted as ringleader of a political student group.
The same year, tragedy struck when Frida was severely injured in a bus accident that damaged her spinal cord and resulted in some 35 operations. There were ongoing periods of convalescence throughout her life.

While recovering from the injury, Frida began to paint. Initially, she painted relatives, friends and herself.

Later, her paintings took on a haunting quality when they became a reflection of her emotional anguish resulting from marriage to Rivera, whom she married at the age of 22. Diego was already an established artist, and 20 years her senior. The older man encouraged her in her work, becoming an important promoter of her talent, but he made her private life hell.

Rivera said of himself: " The more I loved a woman, the more I wanted to hurt her."

The young woman endured numerous humiliations when Rivera cheated on her regularly, including with her own sister.

Like many great artists, Kahlo's fame skyrocketed after her death. But while alive, she was by no means an unknown.

As Rivera’s wife, Frida was recognized in art and society circles across the US but she resented her role as an ornament for Diego and longed to establish herself in her own right.

Her first solo exhibition was in New York City, in 1938. In 1940, the French surrealist Andre Breton, a friend and admirer, included her works in the National Exhibition of Surrealism in Mexico in 1940.

When she and Diego visited Rockefeller in the U.S., Frida was disgusted by the gap that capitalism had created between the wealthy and the poor in North America. Diego's communist-friendly works were rejected in the States, and they returned to Mexico after Frida miscarried.

Pained by her inability to have children, Diego's continued infidelities, and the lingering effects of her accident, Frida embarked on a series of affairs with both men and women. She even became romantically involved with the exiled Leon Trotsky, and Diego divorced her. Later, she was briefly imprisoned and interrogated because of her ex-husband's implication in the assassination of Trotsky.

Throughout, she continued to be plagued by back problems. Between operations, with her health failing and her mind deteriorating, Frida kept painting. She wanted Diego to know how much she was suffering. Guilt-ridden, Diego remarried her.

Frida Kahlo died in 1954, at the age of 47, full of pain, drugs and alcohol. Rivera followed her three years later.

However tragic her life was, Frida's agony became her ultimate triumph because, today, she has become one of the most recognized painters of our time with an almost mythical status.

Frida Kahlo had always been dependent on others, but she longed for nothing more than to be her own person. Were she alive today, her tears might well turn into smiles. In the past two decades, her life and art have generated intense worldwide interest.

Among Kahlo's best-known works are "Broken Column" of 1944, her haunting self-portrait as "The Wounded Deer" and "Moses".

More than one third of Kahlo's works were self-portraits. "Broken Column", painted a few years before her death, is probably the most agonizing. It depicts Kahlo standing in a desert landscape with her body pierced by nails and her spine exposed as a classical column in pieces.

Her self-painted image has become one of the most recognized of contemporary art. From a life of tragedy, Frida Kahlo has created her ultimate victory, being celebrated at last through worldwide exhibitions of her paintings and a movie starring the Mexican actress Salma Hayek.

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Some recommended books on Frida Kahlo:

The World of Frida Kahlo; Exhibition Catalog; edited by Erika Billeter; Denteli Werd Verlag
Frida: a biography of Frida Kahlo; Hayden Herrera; Harper Collins
Frida Kahlo: The Paintings; Hayden Herrera; Harper Collins
Frida Kahlo: the Brush of Anguish; Martha Zamora; Chronicle Books
Frida Kahlo: The Camera Seduced; Carla Stellweg; Collection of black and white photographs of Frida Kahlo; Chronicle Books
The fabulous Life of Diego Rivera; Bertram D. Wolfe; Scarborough House
Frida Kahlo: Torment and Triumph; Malka Drucker; Bantam

Vocabulary Index

serious – grave in nature of disposition, major, big, important
antonym: insignificant, unimportant
street car - Trambahn
shaped - formed
ultimate victory – final victory
celebrated – gefeiert
muralist - Wandmaler

outlet – a way to express something
tattered – shredded, in pieces, ragged
she revised – she changed
coincide – to occur or exist at the same time
antonym: to be inconsistent with, to occur at a different time
ringleader – someone who leads other in what is usually a mischievous activity
severely injured – schwer veletzt

spinal cord – the thick cord of nerve tissue within the spinal canal. The spine is the backbone.
convalescence – period of recovery from illness or disease.
throughout –all the time, through the whole of
initially – at first
haunting – something that grips you, something that is unforgettable
anguish – extreme pain or misery, agony
antonym: peace of mind

to encourage/he encouraged – inspire, support/he inspired, he (emotionally) supported
antonyms: deter, discourage, dishearten, hinder
humiliations – degradations: when someone ridicules you, you suffer humiliation
he cheated on her – he betrayed her, he was unfaithful to her
antonym: He was faithful
by no means – not at all, definitely not
she was recognized – she was known/remembered
resent/resented – if you don’t like someone or something, you resent them or it

an ornament – something decorative that makes a person or thing look better, like
jewelry, something for show
admirer – someone who thinks the world of you, someone who very much likes what you do
antonym: someone who looks down on you

disgusted – put off. (If you don’t like someone’s behavior, you are disgusted (offended/repelled) by it)
gap – a space
rejected – not liked
miscarry – to lose your baby in the pregnancy
infidelities – if you are not faithful or loyal to someone you commit infidelities
lingering effects – effects that remain or are here to stay

embark/he embarked – to set out on/he set out on – to begin with/to start with
to interrogate/he interrogated – befragen/er befragte
implication – covert meaning/something hinted at
deteriorating – going downhill/getting worse
guilt-ridden – if you steal something and then feel bad about it, you are guilt-ridden.
agony – anguish, deep pain

ultimate - final
dependent – someone who relies on someone or something else
they have generated – they have brought about/given rise to
among (Kahlo’s) best-known works – zu ihren bekanntesten Werken zählen…
to depict/he depicts – to portray/he portrays
pierced – having a hole through it

exposed – uncovered/out in the open (nackt/bloss)
column – an upright pillar (Säule)



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