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GRAVITAS MAGAZINE GravitasMag.com | 73 Continued page 74 OPPOSITE PAGE: Frida Kahlo, In All Her Glory, Circa 1937, Photo By Nickolas Muray. LEFT: Frida and Diego Rivera BELOW: Frida Kahlo, Self Portrait. Born Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón in Mex ico City, Kahlo was one of four daughters born to a Hungarian- Jewish father and a Spanish and Mex ican Indian mother. e family lived in Kahlo's childhood home, known as La Casa A zul – the Blue House – that would ser ve as great inspiration in her life. When Kahlo was just six years old, she contracted polio, leaving her bedridden for nine months. While she recovered from the illness, she was le with a limp because the disease damaged her right leg and foot. Self-conscious about her disability, Kahlo wore long , colorful skirts to hide her legs. Despite her disability, she was able to play sports and found it therapeutic in her recovery, participating in soccer, swimming and wrestling. In 1922, Kahlo's parents enrolled her in one of the most prestigious preparatory schools in Mexico, one of only 35 girls aending. She became popular among the girls for her individual style, wearing colorful, long flowing skirts and Tehuana dresses made by native artisans, paired with chunky jewelry made of natural wood, semi-precious stones or acrylic. She wore her hair in braided plaits on top or wrapped around her head and adorned with large bows or flowers, the signature style that would carry through her life in her art. It was during these school years that she became romantically involved with A lejandro Gómez A rias. At the age of 18, Kahlo was riding on a city bus that collided with a trolley car and le her severely injured. A steel handrail that cut into her hip impaled Kahlo, fracturing her spine and pelvis and suffered several other injuries. Kahlo spent three months recovering in a full body cast and doctors told her she would never be able to have children. As a way to cope with her injuries and the long , painful healing process, Kahlo discovered painting , using a specially made easel by her bedside. Her astute, early self-portraits depicted a woman suffering multiple setbacks in her recovery as she regained her ability to walk. She underwent 35 operations on her back, right leg and foot, and was le in extreme pain for the remainder of her life. Even though doctors told her she would not be able to have children, she conceived three times in her life but miscarried all of them. In one of her notable paintings on sheet metal, "e Henry Ford Hospital" showed Kahlo on a bed, bleeding during one of her miscarriages. Frida and Diego One of her biggest influencers in her life –a chance encounter with Mexico's favorite artistic son and world-renowned painter Diego R ivera – would later meet her again and become her husband. e couple met while R ivera was working on a mural at the Ministry of Public Education in Mexico. She showed him four of her painting and oen told others that someday she would have R ivera's baby, despite their 20-year age difference. When they reconnected they married a year later in 1929. eir marriage would never be a perfect union, oen turbulent and temperamental, with both of them engaging in numerous torrid affairs. Kahlo was known to have extramarital affairs "I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best." Frida Kahlo, 1938

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