Was it the uni-brow and the mustache? Was it the dramatic paintings? Or did all three catapult Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo, into international recognition for translating her  biography into captivating self-portraits

By Samantha Tilipman

Fridamania, Fridolatry, Fridaphilia, Frida fever. Four decades of a Frida Kahlo-obsessed culture have generated these cult expressions and have transformed the deceased Mexican artist to an immortal icon.

But, it is the translation of Kahlo’s life into art has brought her fame beyond her lifetime.

“Her star quality and larger-than-life status are not due to her art alone, but rather to the whole of her life and personality,” wrote Dr. Danielle Knafo, clinical psychologist in “The Mirror, the Mask, and the Masquerade in the Art and Life of Frida Kahlo.” The woman that grips the paintbrush alongside the woman rendered on canvas speaks to audiences today.

Kahlo’s autobiographical artwork, painted after her accident, allow audiences a glimpse into her life to sense her suffering and to experience her tragedies, all while simultaneously appreciating her work. “Her work’s imagery is discussed as much as her personal history,” says Rocío Aranda-Alvarado , Associate Curator at El Museo del Barrio. “Audiences access her personality through her work.” Based on this cultivated persona, admirers have dubbed her a “secular saint” stemming from the agony and strength illustrated in her paintings.

Frida captivates her viewers by locking their eyes onto the anguish she endured. In The Broken Column (1944) painted nearly 20 years after the devastating trolley accident, Frida’s bare chest split open by a broken metal column. Nails dig into her skin, as tears stream down her face. The column represents Kahlo’s broken spine, the tears illustrate the emotional pain while the nails depict the physical. The empty desert behind Kahlo symbolizes the isolation she suffers inside her broken body. While The Broken Column hangs in the Collection Museo Dolores Olmedo Patiño in Mexico City, her 1943 self-portrait, Roots, was auctioned off at Sotheby’s in New York in May 2006. The painting sold for $5.616 million, a record price for a Mexican artist.

Frida Kahlo was born on July 6, 1907 in Coyoacán, Mexico, although she later changed the year to 1910 to coincide with the Mexican Revolution. The artist suffered many maladies from childhood, the first being diagnosed with polio at six. Another: in 1925, 17-year-old Kahlo, was riding in an electric bus when it collided with a wooden trolley car. A broken handrail speared Kahlo, breaking her spinal column, ribs, and collar bone. The accident’s aftermath left her bed-ridden for nine months during which she started painting small canvas portraits.

“Without much attention, I began to paint. My obsession was to begin again, painting things just as I saw them with my own eyes, and nothing more,” Kahlo wrote in her journal. A mirror hung above Kahlo’s bed so she became her own subject. From her captivity evolved 55 self-portraits and her iconic image: the unibrow and mustache, the eclectic dress and elaborate hair, and the ritualized pose.

It is a misconception that Frida’s fame rose from obscurity after her death in 1954. As a budding artist Kahlo met famed Mexican muralist, Diego Rivera, whom she married at 22. Not only did Rivera inspire Kahlo’s work, but he also helped her become better known in the art world. “He suggested friends who would look at her work since she was modest about her paintings,” said Kahlo expert, Hayden Herrera, author of Frida. “The actor, Edward G. Robinson, bought many of her paintings because of Rivera.”

In 1938 Kahlo had her first and only solo exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York City. Prominent artists like Georgia O’Keeffe and Isamu Noguchi attended and half of her paintings were sold, according to Veronica Roberts, Curatorial Assistant for the Department of Painting of Sculpture at the MoMA. The press applauded the show and Time magazine commended “Little Frida’s pictures”.

Besides her art, Kahlo’s style was a source of her celebrity, according to authors Robin Richmon and Martha Zamora. During the late 1930s and 1940s, the artist’s, “exotic clothing and unusual jewelry turned heads where she went,” said Zamora. After her New York exhibition, Kahlo’s personal style became known as “look”. From elaborate Tehuana costumes and ornate hair arrangements studded with fresh flowers to masculine suits with cropped hair, Frida’s image was consistently unique. Vogue even featured her on a cover in 1939 with only her hand draped with Mexican jewelry.

While Kahlo’s name was featured in many newspaper articles during her lifetime, her recognition faded after death. Frida resurfaced during the Women’s Liberation and Chicano Civil Rights movements of the 1970’s. “Being known by her first name only is pretty incredibly famous and that came long after her death,” says Roberts. “She became recognized during the rise in feminism because she was a remarkable person and artist.”

Kahlo became an emblem for the Chicanos. “She was a women painting in Mexico at a time that Mexican muralists were male,” says Herrera. “She was working in an atmosphere that didn’t favor women painters.” To fashion and promote their politics and identities, the Chicano movement’s followers used Frida’s art, elevating her to cult status. For instance, in 1978 the Homenaje a Frida Kahlo exhibition used Kahlo’s image for an altar at a San Francisco gallery.

Frida’s renown also expanded beyond political and social activism, “into the art history canon, art museums, and documentary films during the 1980s and then into popular culture in the 1990s,” said Margaret Lindauer, in her novel Devouring Frida. Kahlo’s dramatic life paired with her stirring paintings has made her story one to retell.

Frida, an operatic play at Brooklyn Academy opened in 1992 during the Music New Wave Festival. Ten years later, actress Salma Hayek played Frida in the motion-picture which grossed $58 million worldwide.

But has Frida become too commercialized?

“I don’t think it matters; it doesn’t take away from the strength of her work,” says Herrera. “She wanted to be noticed, so she would like all the attention she is getting.”