Frida Kahlo's World

The home that Frida lived in almost
her entire life

The “Blue House,” as Frida Kahlo’s home is called, sits next door to her late husband, Diego Rivera’s home, in a quiet residential neighborhood. Inside the shady, peaceful courtyard are many historic artifacts that she and Diego collected. A lot of her home and her art reflects both the roots of Mexico’s indigenous past, as well as her own very personal life experiences with pain, suffering and eventual death. 

The wheelchair and adaptions to her workshop that enabled
her keep creating

The courtyard filled with beautiful plantings,
prehistoric art, and water features made for a
tranquil sanctuary.

Frida contracted polio as a child, leaving her mildly disabled, and later at age18 she was seriously injured in a bus accident. Often bedridden, and enduring numerous medical treatments, she lived with severe pain, and eventually became wheelchair bound after losing a leg to amputation. 

Frida became pregnant against
her doctors' advice, but miscarried

Despite her physical challenges she maintained a very lively social life, surrounding herself with many artists and intellectuals, as well as taking on many lovers of both sexes, while single and married. Incredibly, she lived almost her entire life in this home, despite her many artistic and political activities.

I found her art to be intensely intimate, often depicting how her life was affected by her physical limitations, her grief at not being able to bear children,  living in a cage (the body braces that supported her broken body) the constant pain she lived with, and even her preparation for death.

She incorporated her Mexican roots into much of her work.