Frida Kahlo

             Even though Frida Kahlo was thought to be a surrealist, she solely painted her reality, that portrayed her mental and physical pain. Andre Breton, a surrealist poet, once actually remarked that Kahlo was a surrealist, but Kahlo denied arguing that she only painted her reality and her experiences of life. Although Kahlo was aware of the surrealist movement, she did not necessarily get involved with it. Kahlo's paints were actually highly personal self-portraits that revealed the most painful aspects of her life. .
             The most significant event in Kahlo's life was the most tragic one as well. At the age of eighteen, she was involved in a serious bus accident that not only changed her for the duration, but that also changed her life; her body was almost ruined. Both her spinal column and pelvis were broken in three places. Not capable of leaving her bed, and with out many options to pass her time, Kahlo began painting; this was her only way of revealing her thoughts and exploring her innermost painful feelings, memories, and experiences. Kahlo spent the next three years of her life, as she was unable to move, painting and portraying the reality of her life; how it had changed and how helpless and incomplete she felt. To most people her work seemed quit abstract, just images of fantasy with touches of violence. However, her work had great depth and held true memories of pain and suffering. .
             "I am not sick. I am broken. But I am happy as long as I can paint," (Kahlo).
             Kahlo believed that painting was a form of therapy for her. This is why after her release from the cask, she did not go back to school, and instead she kept concentrating on her paintings. At about this time, she met the Italian born American photographer Tina Modotti, who introduced her to a circle of artists and political activists. This is where she first met the famous Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. Kahlo took her first few paintings to Rivera, who encouraged her to continue her work.