Frida Kahlo: An Incomplete Life in Pictures

July 6, 1907 - July 13, 1954

"Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?"

Pictures 1-6

1. Frida in 1911

2. Frida in 1913

3. Frida in 1919

4. Frida in 1922

5. Frida in 1924

6. Frida with family in 1924

"At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.”

Pictures 7 & 8
Just after the 1925 bus accident which gravely injured her.
Her pelvis was impaled by a handrail - she would later describe it as “the way a sword pierces a bull.” Multiple ribs were fractured as well as her pelvic bone, and her uterus had been pierced as well. Her spine was broken, intitially thought to be in three places, but later it would be discovered that three additional vertabrae had also been broken. Her right leg broken in eleven places. Her shoulder was dislocated and her collar bone was fractured.

She began painting during her long recovery to distract herself from the boredom and pain.

"Everything changes, everything moves, everything revolves, everything flies and goes away."

Pictures 9-17

9. Frida in 1926

10. Frida in 1926

11. Self Portrait in a Velvet Dress (1926 - first self-portrait)

12. Frida in 1927

13. Frida with Tina Modotti (1928)

14. Frida in 1929

15. Frida in 1931

16. Frida in 1932 by Lucienne Bloch

17. Frida in 1932

"I am not sick. I am broken. But I am happy to be alive as long as I can paint."

Pictures 18 - 26

18. Frida in 1932 painting socialite

19. Henry Ford Hospital (1932)

20. My Birth (1932)

21. Self-portrait on the border between Mexico and the United States (1932)

22. Frida in 1933 by Lucienne Bloch

23. Frida in 1933

24. “Wife of master mural painter gleefully dabbles in works of art”

25. Frida in 1935

26. Frida in 1937 by Julien Levy

"My painting carries with it the message of pain."

Pictures 27 - 35

27. Frida in 1937

28. Frida in 1937 by Julien Levy

29. Frida in 1937 by Julien Levy

30. Frida with Jacqueline Lamba in 1938

31. Frida in 1939

32. The Two Fridas (1939)

33. Frida and Two Fridas (1939)

34. Two Nudes in a Forest (1939)

35. Frida with Emmy Lou Packard (1940)
    

"I am my own muse, the subject I know best."

Pictures 36 - 44

36. Frida in 1940

37. Frida in 1940

38. Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird (1940)

39. The Bed (1940)

40. The Wounded Table (1940)

41. Frida with The Wounded Table (1940)

42. Frida with Me and My Parrots (1941)

43. Self-portrait with red and gold dress (1941)

44. Frida in her studio (1943)
    

"They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn't. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality."

Pictures 45 - 53

45. Frida in 1944 by Sylvia Salmi

46. Frida in 1944 by Sylvia Salmi

47. Frida in 1944

48. The Broken Column (1944)

49. Frida with Chavela Vargas in 1945

50. Frida in 1945

51. Without Hope (1945)

52. Frida in 1946

53. Frida in 1946
    

"I think that little by little I'll be able to solve my problems and survive."

Pictures 54 - 59

54. The Wounded Deer (1946)

55. Frida with Nayantara Sahgal and Rita Dar in 1947

56. Frida in 1951

57. Frida in 1952

58. Frida in 1954

"Where you cannot love, do not prolong your stay."

Viva La Vida (1954)
This painting was finished just a few days before her death.

"I hope the exit is joyful, and I hope never to return.”