MEXICAN QUEEN OF COLOUR
I. Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) was a Mexican painter of the indigenous culture in a style combining Realism, Symbolism and Surrealism. She was deeply influenced by indigenous Mexican culture, visible in the bright colours of her paintings and dramatic symbolism. “I paint my own reality,” she once said. Most of her paintings show her troubled personality and life experiences and she loved to paint herself-53 of her 140 paintings are self-portraits.
II. When she was a small child she suffered from polio which left one of her legs shorter. Later on in her life, she was in a serious tram accident which left her in terrible pain for most of her life. Her poor health is also often shown in her pictures.
III. Kahlo was famous for her unconventional appearance-she refused to remove her facial hair (she had a small moustache and black brows which she exaggerated in self-portraits), and for her extravagant style of clothing based mainly on traditional Mexican dresses.
IV. Her preoccupation with female themes and women’s problems made her a cult feminist figure in the last decade of the 20th century. Today, Frida Kahlo is considered Mexico’s painting ambassador and a representative of women’s rights.
