What Is Frida Kahlo De Rivera A Surrealist

Frida Kahlo de Rivera is one of Mexico’s most famous painters. She grew up during the Mexican revolution and belongs to the Surrealist art movement. Encouraged by her husband Diego Rivera, Frida documented major events in her life. She was a great painter and expressed her feelings through her expressive colors and symbolic imagery. Frida also showed her love for animals, she had a few pet monkeys and a pet fawn in which she painted. She has inspired many people throughout the years with her political and emotional artwork. Although many of her works contain surreal elements they cannot be called surrealist, because she never entirely frees herself from reality. She stated, “They thought I was a surrealist, but I wasn’t. I never painted dreams.
At the age of six she contracted polio, which left her right leg thinner than the left. She tried to disguise this later in life by wearing long colorful skirts. She spent much of her life in physical pain after a near-fatal bus accident when she was only eighteen. She was riding on a bus that collided with a tram, and several people were killed and injured. During the accident an iron handrail pierced her abdomen and pelvis. She suffered multiple injuries including a broken spinal column, collarbone, ribs, pelvis, fractures in her right leg, and a dislocated foot and shoulder. Resulting in her having thirty-five operations to try to repair her body. During her recovery she was often confined to her bed. Her health problems lead her to have three miscarriages and she eventually could not have children. She decided to abandon the study of medicine and began painting instead. Her paintings had four central themes including gender, issues of identity, the political body, and the traumatized body. Her total number of works is one hundred and forty three paintings and fifty-five were self-portraits. She was asked why she painted so many self-portraits, she replied, “Because I am so often alone. Because I am the subject I know
He noticed her talent for painting and encouraged very much. Her relationship with her husband was so troubled that she could only find release through her paintings. Diego had had repeated affairs with other women including an affair with Frida’s younger sister Cristina. She actually modeled for Diego in two of his murals. This left Frida completely heartbroken, so in 1935 she left the couple’s home and got an apartment in Mexico City. She contacted a lawyer and was considering a divorce. Frida was also a bisexual and after finding out about Diego’s affair she soon had affairs with women and men. Diego was okay with her affairs with women but not the affairs with other men. Finally they got a divorce in November 1939 but then got remarried in December 1940. Their second marriage was as troubled as their first but this time they lived in separate houses that were right next to each other. She often refers to her husband in her paintings. She once said, "I suffered two grave accidents in my life, one in which a streetcar knocked me down…. the other accident is