Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderon

Las Dos Fridas (The Two Fridas), 1939

Frida Kahlo, one of Mexico's best-known painters, had a life colored with pain and genius. Kahlo had polio at age six, and had to relearn how to walk. At the age of 18, she was in a severe bus accident that left her bedridden with a broken spinal column, a broken collarbone, broken ribs, a broken pelvis, eleven fractures in her right leg, a crushed and dislocated right foot, and a dislocated shoulder. During her recovery, she began painting.

Known best for her 55 self-portraits, Kahlo often incorporated symbolic depictions of physical pain. Her use of dramatic symbolism and bright colors show that her work was influenced by traditional Mexican culture.

In 1954, Kahlo died of a pulmonary embolism, which may have been brought on by an overdose. No autopsy was performed. Kahlo's work was not appreciated outside the art world until the Neomexicanismo movement in the early 1980s.