Beautiful Art from the Bitter Story of Life

Hi Kēpōers! Did you know that being an artist doesn't just rely on inspiration and living in creativity to produce works of great value? Some of them have to struggle to live and work with various kinds of life challenges. For some of them, life's challenges are the main inspiration to finally be able to create extraordinary works, which have made them famous until now. One of the artists who made her life story as an inspiration is Frida Kahlo.

Frida Kahlo was a self-portrait artist born on July 6, 1907, in Mexico City, Mexico. She’s well known for both her art and her political activism. Many people consider Kahlo to be a surrealist painter because of the chaotic play of symbols and crosses of the colors that she chooses in her paintings, like a fantasy. But Kahlo rejects that notion by saying "I never paint dreams. I paint my own reality."

Living in her house called Casa Azul or The Blue House, Kahlo suffered from polio from the age of six, which resulted in her right leg being smaller than her left. As a teenager, she had a terrible accident that caused a fracture to his hip. The accident caused Kahlo to use a support device on her body and continued to lie in bed. For the rest of her life, the pain often recurs with such extreme pain that he has to be brought back to the hospital or can only be bedridden for months. She spent three months recovering in a full cast, which included 35 surgeries, mainly on his back and right leg.

But from this accident, Kahlo finally started a career as an artist. The self-portrait theme is Kahlo's main choice in her work because since the accident she is used to being alone. Her father and mother were so supportive of Kahlo's activities, they even helped make a special drawing board backrest so she could paint on the bed. Of her total of 200 paintings, most of them are self-portraits, and nearly all of them have been interpreted by critics as symbolic depictions of Kahlo's physical and psychological wounds.

Kahlo's slump was compounded by an affair between her husband Diego Rievea with a number of women, including his sister Cristina. Kahlo painted subjects that were extremely rarely seen, including the pain of her divorce. She painted the miscarriage that ended her pregnancy. She painted domestic violence. These paintings were raw and vivid. She took private, uncomfortable subjects and put them in the public view. Such art must have been shocking in society because these topics are still considered by many to be too private to discuss openly. Yet, these subjects impact so many people, so deeply, that art seems a natural way to address them. This is especially true given the thoughtful treatment that she gave to the subjects. Kahlo’s courageous use of her clear-eyed and direct art to illuminate women’s experience was advocacy genius.

So, Kahlo was simply an artist who captured her flaws on canvas. She had facial hair, one leg smaller than the other, a fractured spine, and she was a woman that could barely walk. She often used a wheelchair and could barely get out of bed, but her disability is what fuelled her luminous creativity. She was unapologetic about who she was and that’s why she continues to shine today. She never pretended to be someone else, she’s just being herself. From Kahlo’s story we have to remember that our limitations and our past are not an obstacle for us to be able to develop or create extraordinary work. However, we can use our weakness into strengths like Kahlo who has inspired many people by sharing her life story through her beautiful paintings.

“I paint self-portraits, because I paint my own reality. I paint what I need to. Painting completed my life.” -Frida Kahlo

Writer : Ines Haryanto

Editor : Celine Davina Masko

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