Frida and Diego lived here

I wonder if it would strike Frida Kahlo as odd that she has become such an iconic and popular figure?  Overshadowed during her lifetime by her larger (literally!) and much more famous husband Diego Rivera, it wasn't until a 1983 biography by Hayden Herrera was published that she became well known outside of Mexico. Today, her brooding face with its signature bold eyebrows stares out at us from tote bags, coffee mugs and refrigerator magnets. She has become a mixed-up symbol of feminism, Mexican nationalism, sexuality and a kind of voluptuous suffering, all suffused with a kind of retro-glamor beauty that commands attention like a rock star.

 

In fact, even rock stars love Frida - Madonna is a collector of her works, and punk poet Patti Smith left a poetic tribute in the guestbook at the Museum that was once Kahlo's family home.  The poem is now printed on one of the walls facing the garden.

Kahlo's life was both tragic and rich. Stricken by polio as a child, she later suffered horrific injuries in a bus accident when she was 18. She suffered multiple bone fractures, including her spine, and an iron handrail pierced her abdomen. She spent months in a plaster body cast, and while immobilized, she learned to paint to occupy her time.

Still Life (Round), oil on copper, Frida Kahlo, 1942

Her works are suffused with images of pain, personal torment, and symbolism.She painted over 55 self-portraits that lay bare her heart's deepest feelings about her marriage, her broken body, and her sexuality. Yet she brings her psychic pain to all her work - even this still life presents images that are almost too-intimate symbols of her sexual and physical vulnerability.

The garden at the Frida Kahlo museum

The Museum's permanent collection has preserved Kahlo and Rivera's everyday lives, including the kitchen, dining room and studio where they worked. There is also Kahlo's canopy bed, where she spent the last of her days, before an open door that leads to the tranquil inner garden of their house.

Frida's bed is just beyond the green french doors

The studio, with her wheelchair before the easel

The kitchen

 
"I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do. I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me too. Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it's true I'm here, and I'm just as strange as you."

 - Frida Kahlo