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On 17 September 1925, a streetcar hit the bus carrying eighteen-year-old Frida Kahlo, breaking her spine, pelvis and right leg. She had planned to study medicine; instead, confined to bed for months, she began painting with a mirror fixed above her and an easel made for lying down.

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Her mother had the mirror fitted to the top of her four-poster bed and an easel made that she could use lying down, and the self-portraits Kahlo began there became central to her work. She gave a plain reason for painting herself so often: she was often alone, and she was the subject she knew best. Her injuries never fully healed; she went through around thirty operations and long spells in bed over her life. She married the muralist Diego Rivera in 1929, divorced him in 1939 and remarried him in 1940. Alongside still lifes, portraits and work on Mexican politics and identity, her own face became one of the best-known in twentieth-century art.

Türkçe oku
17 Eylül 1925'te bir tramvay, on sekiz yaşındaki Frida Kahlo'nun bulunduğu otobüse çarptı; omurgası, leğen kemiği ve sağ bacağı kırıldı. Tıp okumayı planlıyordu, ama aylarca yatağa bağlı kalınca üstüne asılan bir aynaya bakarak, yatarken kullanılabilen bir şövaleyle resim yapmaya başladı.

Annesi yatağın tepesine bir ayna yerleştirtti ve yatarken kullanabileceği bir şövale yaptırdı; Kahlo'nun orada başladığı otoportreler sanatının merkezine yerleşti. Kendini neden bu kadar sık resmettiğini yalın bir cümleyle açıkladı: çoğu zaman yalnızdı ve en iyi tanıdığı konu kendisiydi. Yaraları hiçbir zaman tam iyileşmedi; hayatı boyunca otuz kadar ameliyat geçirdi, uzun süreler yatakta kaldı. 1929'da duvar resimleriyle tanınan ressam Diego Rivera'yla evlendi, 1939'da boşandı ve 1940'ta onunla yeniden evlendi. Natürmortları, portreleri ve Meksika'nın siyasetini ve kimliğini işleyen eserlerinin yanında kendi yüzü, 20. yüzyıl sanatının en tanınan yüzlerinden biri oldu.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Frida Kahlo
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