1907 -1954 · Self-portrait, Mexican modernity, body and identity

Frontal face, plant symbols, wounded body, Mexican identity and self-construction make Frida Kahlo one of the most unique voices of the 20th century.

Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderon was born in Coyoacan in 1907. As a child, she suffered from poliomyelitis. In 1925, a serious bus accident caused multiple fractures and opened a long series of operations, corsets and periods of immobility. During his convalescence, Kahlo began painting using an easel adapted to his bed and a mirror. The self-portrait became his main laboratory. It is not a simple biographical story: clothing, animals, plants, medical objects, inscriptions and landscapes construct a multi-level image of the body, gender, pain and cultural belonging. In 1929, she married Diego Rivera. Their relationship, made of collaboration, separations and reunions, crosses his work without exhausting it. Kahlo collects Mexican folk art, wears regional clothing and uses the retablo format, ex-votos and pre-Columbian traditions to assert a distinct Mexican modernity. Self-portrait on the border between Mexico and the United States pits industry, technology, earth and memory against each other. Self-portrait with a necklace of thorns and hummingbird puts the face at the center of a network of suffering, animals and vegetation. Self-portrait with a necklace of thorns and hummingbird puts the face at the center of a network of suffering, animals and vegetation. Self-portrait with a necklace of thorns and hummingbird puts the face at the center of a network of suffering, animals and vegetation. Self-portrait with a necklace of thorns and hummingbird puts the face at the center of a network of suffering, animals and vegetation. Self-portrait with a necklace of thorns and hummingbird puts the face at the center of a network of suffering, animals and vegetation. Self-portrait with a necklace of thorns and hummingbird puts the face at the center of a network of suffering, animals and vegetation. Self-portrait with a necklace of thorns and hummingbird puts the face at the center of a network of suffering, animals and vegetation. Self-portrait with a necklace of thorns and humming double figure and split landscape. André Breton brings Kahlo closer to surrealism, but she insists that she paints her reality rather than dreams. A committed communist, she exhibited in New York in 1938, in Paris in 1939 and participated in the international exhibition of surrealism in Mexico in 1940. Her only personal exhibition in Mexico during her lifetime took place in 1953. She died in Casa Azul in 1954. Her only personal exhibition in Mexico during her lifetime took place in 1953. She died in Casa Azul in 1954. Her relatively narrow work deploys a major reflection on self-image, disability, sexuality, politics and Mexican culture. The "Frida Kahlo" selection notably compares Tree of Hope, remains firm and Self-portrait at the border. His reading favors drawing.

Kahlo does not deliver a single face: each self-portrait recomposes the body, history and identity with new signs.