FRIDA
I want to tell you that I’ve behaved well.
That I haven’t had any affairs or amusements or lovers or anything like that.
That I love Mexico as never before.
That I adore Diego, more than my own life, and that I’m becoming a serious person.
Frida Kahlo.
CHILDHOOD
1907–1925
FRIDA
I was born in Coyoacán, on the outskirts of Mexico City, in a blue house.
I was the third of four sisters.
Christina, Cristi—the “chubby one”—was the youngest, and my best friend.
FRIDA
My mother, Matilda Calderon, was a beautiful woman from Oaxaca with enormous dark eyes and full lips.
She could neither read nor write. And she was not in love with my father.
She was consumed by frustration and expressed it through religion—she
made us go to church every day and pray before every meal.
FRIDA
My father, “Mr. Kahlo,” was a photographer and a very interesting man.
Many evenings he would come home from Mexico City and play Strauss on his piano. He would read Goethe or Schiller and whisper to me, “Frieda, dear Frieda—
, you are the most intelligent of my daughters—and so…most like me.”
I agree with everything my father taught me and nothing my mother taught me.
FRIDA
For ten long years, the Mexican Revolution raged against centuries of oppression.
Wounded and hungry fighters jumped through the windows into our living room.
The bullets whizzed past. I can still hear their extraordinary sound.
BUS RIDE
1925
FRIDA
It was a strange collision.
It wasn't violent, but rather silent and slow, and it hurt everyone.
But me most of all.
BIRTH OF AN ARTIST
1926
FRIDA
. Now I live on a painful planet, transparent as ice. I grew old in an instant, and
everything today is bland and lucid.
I know that nothing lies behind—if there were something, I would see it.
FRIDA
My father had a box of oil paints and some paintbrushes.
My mother asked a carpenter to make a special easel because I couldn’t sit up.
Without paying much attention, I began to paint.
SELF-PORTRAIT IN A VELVET DRESS
1929
FRIDA
This is my first self-portrait, and I painted myself with a very pronounced unibrow. In
reality, I didn’t have such a strong feature, but I wanted to add a detail that would
make me stand out from any other girls Alejandro might meet.
I was 19 and alone most of the time. I wanted to impress and seduce Alejandro.
On the back, I wrote in German: "TODAY IS STILL."
FRIDA
I think I'm getting better. I want to believe it.
After two years on this painful planet, I'm starting to walk again!
I tease and laugh at death—he'll never get the better of me.
NATIONAL PALACE
FRIDA
I was going to be free! – And so was my country!
Mexico had emerged from the revolution and was the center of MODERNITY.
At the heart of the movement was the world-famous painter, Diego Rivera.
A great libertarian. A great communist. A great man.
I marched in protest demonstrations and joined the Communist Party.
FRIDA
There was a great outburst of creativity in painting, in films, in literature, in thought
, and philosophy…
In every single aspect of life.
And I was dancing in the center of this vortex.
We were going to express ourselves freely—
. We’re going to speak freely—We were going to love, freely.
DIEGO
FRIDA
I met Diego back when people carried pistols and went around shooting streetlights.
At night, they’d break them all and go around spraying bullets, just for fun.
Diego shot a gramophone. And… despite my fear, I became very interested in him.
FRIDA
I made all the arrangements at the Coyoacán estate. I asked the maid for some skirts, a blouse, and a rebozo so I could get married in a traditional Mexican dress.
– Which Diego loved.
FRIDA
My mother did NOT approve of the marriage, because Diego was a communist and because she said he was like a fat, fat pig.
Mom said: It's the marriage between an elephant and a dove.
FRIDA
His enormous belly, taut and smooth as a sphere, rests upon his strong legs—beautiful columns—that end in large feet pointing outward, as if to embrace the whole world and to support himself invincibly on the earth.
I believe he is an example of humanity as it will be in the future, two or three thousand years from now.
FRIDA
We had been married less than a year when he had his first affair.
Fidelity was out of the question for him.
FRIDA
I am that clumsy human, always loving, loving, loving. – And loving. – And never leaving.
LIFE
1930–1939
FRIDA
‹Gringolandia›.
We were on our way to San Francisco, the “City of the World.”
A union of Lions.
FRIDA
The city and the bay are wonderful.
I don’t like the gringos at all. They’re very boring, and their faces look like unbaked bread.
FRIDA
I spent most of my time painting portraits of friends, but I've only managed to sell a few of my paintings.
FRIDA
, Leo, my Doctorcito, here in Detroit I don't eat at all.
Well, I don't have any appetite anymore with this troublesome pregnancy.
FRIDA
On a hot July night, I had my second miscarriage.
I spent nearly two devastating weeks in that hospital.
Then I began to sketch out my ideas for this painting….
I am naked, crying in a pool of blood.
Painting has now become my therapy, my way of hiding and revealing my secrets at the same time.
FRIDA
This picture is titled: My Birth.
My mother's head is covered with a white veil because, coincidentally, that's how she was depicted in the painting. My mother died in Mexico.
FRIDA
I'm dreaming of returning to Mexico.
We had been in America for three years, but my heart was always in Mexico.
FRIDA
We both had many affairs—we even shared our lovers…
but this time, Diego—he destroyed my life.
He had an affair with my sister, Cristi. She is the sister I love the most.
FRIDA
You can’t imagine how much I hate and loathe myself.
I have wasted my best years doing nothing but what would benefit Diego.
I've never done anything for myself!
FRIDA
I’ve left the house in San Ángel.
And for the first time, I’m living alone.
In my own apartment—
, I drink a lot. I try to drown my sorrows.
My current outlook on life? Make love—take a bath—and make love again!
FRIDA
: “They thought I was a surrealist, but I wasn’t.”
I never painted dreams. I paint my own reality.
THE TWO FRIDAS
1939
Diego filed for divorce.
I could only paint to express my pain.
When the divorce papers arrived to be signed, I finished “The Two Fridas”
On the right is the Frida loved by Diego; this is me, the Mexican Frida in a Tehuana
dress.
In my hand I hold a miniature of Diego at the age of four.
On the left, it’s me again—the European Frida in a lacy white wedding dress.
The European Frida’s heart is broken, while the Mexican Frida’s heart is whole.
She is bleeding; I try to stop the flow of blood, but it keeps dripping.
In the end, the drops of blood turn into red flowers on my skirt.
This is also how I lived my life; I turned pain into beauty, and in doing so—
—I gave meaning to my pain.
LIFE
1940–1952
FRIDA
: The remarriage is going well.
But I don’t say Diego is my husband because that would be ridiculous.
Diego has never been—and never will be—anyone’s husband.
FRIDA
If I were in better health, one could say that I am happy.
But this feeling of being such a mess from head to toe sometimes messes with my head and makes me feel down.
FRIDA
All the doctors in Mexico thought I needed surgery on my spine.
For three months I lay in bed with a plaster corset and a horrible device on my chin, which made me suffer terribly.
I was sure I was going to die.
FRIDA
They amputated my leg six months ago. It felt like centuries of torture, and at times I nearly went crazy. I still feel like committing suicide. Diego stops me
from doing it, in the vain hope that maybe he’ll need me.
I'll wait a little while.
FRIDA
Everything is all and one.
And everything exists and moves under only one law:
Life.
THE WOUNDED DEER
1946
The hope of recovery has faded, and I painted myself as a young deer wounded by arrows.
Pierced by arrows and bleeding, I—the deer—stare at you in the middle of a dead forest.
I am slowly coming to terms with the fact that I will not recover.
That this is “my destiny.”
EXHIBITION 1953 & DEATH
FRIDA
With friendship and love Born from my heart
I am pleased to invite you
to my humble exhibition.
All I want is for you to tell me
your honest and sincere opinion.
You are a knowledgeable person.
Your knowledge is top-notch.
I painted these paintings myself, and they hang on the walls
to bring joy to my brothers.
With true friendship.
I thank you for this with all my heart.
Frida Kahlo de Rivera.
ICON
FRIDA
I used to think I was the strangest person in the world, but then again, there are so many people in the world—there must be someone just like me, who feels so bizarre and
flawed in the same ways I do.
I would imagine her and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me too.
Well, I hope that if you’re out there and hear this, you’ll know that it’s true.
I’m here, and I’m just as strange as you.
INFINITY ROOM
GOODBYE
VERDE – Good – Warm – Light.
PURPURA – Aztec – Blood of the prickly pear – The brightest and oldest.
MARRÓN – Color of the mole – Of leaves turning to earth.
AMARILLO – Madness – Sickness – Fear – Part of the sun – And of happiness.
AZUL – Electricity – And Purity – Love.
NEGRO – Nothing is black. Really. Nothing.
VERDE OSCURO – Leaves – Sadness – Science. All of Germany is this color.
AMARILLA MOSTAZA – More madness – And mystery – Old ghosts wear clothes of
this color. Or at least their underwear.
AZUL MARINO – The color of bad advertisements – And of good business.
CYAN – Distance – Tenderness can also be