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Frida Kahlo |
Frida Kahlo was a woman who suffered a great deal of pain in her life. She was born in Mexico, the southern neighbor of the United States. When she was six years old, she became ill with a very dangerous disease called polio, which left her with a deformed leg. She was embarrassed about her leg, but noticed that it got her a lot of attention, especially from her parents whom she was afraid did not love her very much. When she was eighteen, she was riding on a bus that crashed into a trolley. Her body was pierced by a piece of metal, and for the rest of her life she had many hospitalizations and operations.
While she was in bed recovering from the bus accident, Ms. Kahlo began to paint. Since most of her paintings were about her own experiences and feelings, many of them can seem sad or painful. She painted a lot of self-portraits (a self-portrait is when a person paints a picture of him- or herself), such as Self-Portrait with Monkey.
Ms. Kahlo loved to wear beautiful Mexican clothing, especially long flowing dresses and scarves in bright colors. She posed with a monkey, which she loved because it reminded her of a playful child. Notice that she has been careful to include even the unusual details of how she looked. Her eyebrows are connected in the middle and she has very dark hairs on her face. Self-portraits like this one are fun to look at because we can try to imagine what the artist is thinking or trying to tell us about him- or herself.