Frida Kahlo is one of the most recognized Mexican artists in the world for her unique way of expressing her feelings in phrases, recipes, letters, photographs, and, of course, her paintings.
Each of Frida’s works and writings shows a little of her tragic life full of disappointments, infidelities, and health problems, as well as portraying Mexico wounded by the Revolution. This woman, whom many Mexicans boast for her talent, has become a banner of art and feminist movements in the world.
12 Frida Kahlo Paintings You Can Find In US Museums
Frida Kahlo’s Most Famous Paintings
The Bus
This painting, painted in 1929, brings together the different social classes of Mexico in a bus. It shows a housewife, a clothed worker, an indigenous mother breastfeeding her baby, a child, a foreigner, and a young woman who looks very much like Frida.
Some scholars of the artist claim that this could be a reference to Frida’s accident in 1925, in which she suffered serious injuries that marked her life and career. The bus crashed, and a handrail was driven into the painter’s chest damaging her spine forever. That day, a man in blue dungarees removed the handrail, saving her life, while gold dust from a ‘gringo’ was sprinkled over Frida’s injured body.
Diego and Frida
Frida painted this double portrait in 1944, as a gift to Diego on their 15th wedding anniversary. The branches of the leaves join the faces of the spouses, who are shown as different sides of the same face. Their relationship is framed by the Moon, the Sun, and seashells. The artist was deeply in love with the muralist, but he betrayed her even with her sister. In the end, she also cheated on him repeatedly, most famously with the Russian revolutionary, Leon Trotsky.
Self-Portrait Wearing a Velvet Suit
This work is perhaps one of the most important in the painter’s career, as it is the first self-portrait she made. She created it in 1926 as a gift for Alejandro Gómez Arias, who was her boyfriend and schoolmate. They had broken up, and she was hoping for a reconciliation and what do you think? It worked out for her.
Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird
In this painting created in 1940, Frida places herself in the center to emphasize her presence. She appears wearing Christ’s crown of thorns as a necklace while hanging a dead hummingbird that simulates Frida’s eyebrow. Over her left shoulder is a black cat that seems to stalk the bird’s corpse; and on her right shoulder is a monkey, which was a gift from Diego.
Frida painted a self-portrait as a gift to her lover, photographer Nickolas Muray. However, after she divorced Rivera, she had to sell the painting to hire a lawyer, and as a replacement, Frida painted this self-portrait.
Without Hope
“Everything moves to the rhythm of what is enclosed in my belly,” reads behind the painting that Frida made in 1945 when she remained in bed for a long time after the accident and maintained a diet of purées every two hours to gain weight. Frida is portrayed in this oil painting with a wooden structure that holds a funnel that continuously feeds her, the sugar skull on top of it, and the blanket that covers her body decorated with microscopic life.
Self-Portrait on the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States
Frida accompanied Diego on his artistic adventure in the United States during the 1930s. Nostalgic for her country, she painted this picture in 1932, in which she expressed her mixed feelings towards the United States.
In the painting, she stands in the center as if she were a statue on a pedestal between different worlds. On one side, she holds the Mexican flag, and around her, there are multiple allegories to her country: natural colors, plants, pyramids, and pre-Hispanic pieces. On the other side are symbols of the United States, such as gray colors, the flag, a large factory, and skyscrapers. The pedestal reads: “Carmen Rivera painted her portrait in 1932.” Carmen was Frida’s baptismal name.
Self-Portrait as a Tehuana
To capture the multiple infidelities of her great love, Diego Rivera, in 1943, she painted a self-portrait in which she appears dressed as a Tehuana. The face of her beloved was drawn on her forehead in the face of her great desire to possess him in his entirety.
Moses (The Nucleus of Creation)
This work, painted in 1945, was commissioned by Don José Domingo Lavin, who asked the artist to read the book Moses and Monotheism by Sigmund Freud, and then make this interpretation. In the middle of the work, you can see a baby that looks like Diego Rivera. His birth is represented under the sun while he is escorted by gods and heroes of humanity.
The Wounded Deer
This painting, which at first glance does not make us feel good, was a wedding gift for her friends Lina and Arcady Boyter. Frida Kahlo painted it in 1946, and it shows her with the body of a deer pierced by arrows while wearing a crown with antlers on her head. According to experts, the meaning of this work lies in Frida’s disappointment after a spinal operation that could have meant a cure for her back pain, which did not even cease with her return to Mexico.
“Here I leave you my portrait, so that you may keep me in mind, every day and every night that I am absent from you. Sadness is portrayed in all my paintings, but that is my condition, I no longer have composure (…) the deer walked alone, sad and very hurt, until it found warmth and a nest in Arcady and Lina,” wrote the artist.
Viva la vida, Watermelons
Eight days before she died in 1954, Frida took the brush, dipped it in red paint, and wrote “Viva la Vida – Coyoacán 1954 – Mexico.” Based on the paintings of her last years, in declining health due to her condition and constant injections of Demerol and Morphine, Frida could have painted this picture in 1952. However, when she became convinced that her days were numbered, she decided to write about the painting, as a farewell.
Four Inhabitants of Mexico
This painting showing a little girl dressed as a Tehuana, a Judas, a pre-Columbian female idol, a clay skeleton, and a straw man on the back of a donkey, is the only one in Frida’s collection that has shadows. This element allows the figures to relate to each other in a plaza near the Blue House. The title corresponds to Frida’s personal belief that “too much revolution has left Mexico empty.”
The Two Fridas
In 1947, this painting became the most expensive one sold by the artist during her lifetime and was acquired by the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes for 4,000 pesos. In this particular self-portrait, the Mexican painter presents her two personalities: on the right, the Frida that was respected and loved by Diego dressed as a Tehuana, while on the left, a European Frida in a Victorian wedding dress, whom Diego abandoned. The painter once admitted that this painting reflected the emotions surrounding Diego’s divorce.
Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair
“Look, if I loved you, it was because of your hair. Now that you’re bald, I don’t love you anymore,” reads at the top of the painting, a verse from a popular Mexican song. In this painting created in 1940, after her divorce from Diego Rivera, Frida abandoned her feminine image. She appears with short hair, a suit that seems to belong to her beloved, but without abandoning her earrings.
The Suicide of Dorothy Hale
Artist Dorothy Hale’s career took a turn after the death of her husband in an automobile accident, which sparked a crisis in the actress’s career and multiple financial problems. Wearing her favorite black dress and a pin of yellow roses, the actress jumped from her apartment window. In 1938, Frida was commissioned to paint a portrait of the actress at the request of Claire Boothe, a friend of the deceased’s mother, for which the Mexican artist painted the corpse at the bottom of the painting.
Horrified by the pictorial representation of the suicide, Claire thought of destroying the painting, although she finally kept it. The painting was not seen for several decades until it mysteriously appeared outside the front door of the Phoenix Art Museum.
Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky
“To Leon Trotsky, with all my love, I dedicate this painting on November 7, 1937. Frida Kahlo in San Angel, Mexico,” reads the note held by the painting’s Frida. The portrait, painted in warm, soft colors, shows a beautiful, seductive, and confident Frida. This painting adorned Trotsky’s studio at the Casa Azul until he moved to his own home and left the painting at his wife’s request.
Story written in Spanish by Nayeli Párraga in Cultura Colectiva
