FRIDA KAHLO (1907-1954) Title: Autorretrato, Medium: Pencil on paper, Date: c 1940, Size: 14 x 10 in. COA by Mrs. Ruth Alvarado Rivera. Was a celebrated Mexican painter known for her complex self-portraits inspired by both Surrealism and traditional Mexican folk art. The incisive and often bizarre depictions led André Breton to describe her work as a “ribbon around a bomb.” “My paintings are well-painted, not nimbly but patiently,” she once said of her work. “My painting contains in it the message of pain. I think that at least a few people are interested in it.” Born Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo Calderón on July 6, 1907, in Mexico City, Mexico, to a German-born father and Mexican mother, she studied at philosophy in her hometown before being admitted into a prestigious preparatory school in 1922. In 1925, she was involved in a traumatic bus accident at the age of 18, which left her confined to a bed for months. It was during her slow recovery that she began to paint and subsequently abandoned her academic pursuits. By 1938, she was invited to show her works in Paris. International acclaim soon followed, with her burgeoning career further encouraged by her husband, the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. Kahlo and Rivera maintained a tumultuous and often combative relationship throughout her life. She continued to paint prolifically despite chronic pain and destabilizing health problems, until her death in Mexico City, Mexico on July 13, 1954 at the age of 47. In 1958, her home the La Casa Azul (The Blue House) in which she was born and died, was converted into the Museo Frida Kahlo, which is dedicated to her life and work. Today, the artist’s works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the National Museum of Women in the Art in Washington, D.C., among others.

Good condition