G08: Visual Art - Icons and Idols: Frida Kahlo

Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderon, as her name appears on her birth certificate was born on July 6, 1907 in the house of her parents, known as La Casa Azul (The Blue House), in Coyoacan. At the time, this was a small town on the outskirts of Mexico City.

Mexican painter best known for her uncompromising and brilliantly coloured self-portraits that deal with such themes as identity, the human body, and death.

In 1930, when Diego received several commissions to paint murals in the United States, the couple packed their bags and headed north. At the end of four years, Diego remained content in his American surroundings, but Frida was homesick and miserable. Her experience living in "Gringolandia" inspired the painting, Self-portrait on the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States.

Find images of and by Frida Kahlo in Britannica Image Quest