Photos and secret love letters of Frida Kahlo

The artist, known for her exotic beauty, painted mesmerizing paintings that imprinted her own personality. Frida Kahlo's work borders on self-portrait art and visual mythology. In her paintings, stories of personal torment and surrealistic visions generated by the subconscious are mixed.

Frida Kahlo was in the spotlight, she was photographed no less than any Mexican movie star of those times. But the beautiful shots portrayed only a vivid version of Kahlo's life, leaving behind the frame the emotional and physical pain that accompanied her throughout most of her life.

At the age of six, Kahlo contracted polio. At the age of 18, she was in a severe accident and was permanently injured as a passenger on a bus that was hit by a tram. Doctors found in Frida a triple fracture of the spine and a broken pelvis three times, as well as 11 fractures of the right leg that had previously suffered from polio, crushed feet, a fracture of the collarbone and ribs, and dislocation of the shoulder. The injuries of the abdomen and reproductive organs, which caused infertility, turned out to be severe. After the disaster, the artist underwent many more operations throughout her life, mainly on the spine, and depended on painkillers. She desperately wanted to become a mother, but three times the pregnancy ended tragically in a forced termination.

(Total 24 photos)

Source: cameralabs.org

1. Frida suffered deeply from the inability to give birth to a child. She poured out all her inner torments in her canvases. But in public she was seen invariably persistent, cheerful and surprisingly beautiful.

The relationship with her husband Diego Rivera, whom she once called her second accident, also became difficult. Being a popular artist, he aroused the interest of many women, started endless romances, bringing incredible suffering to Frida, who was 21 years younger than him. In the end, she herself began to find joy on the side.

2. Diego Rivera (left) and Walt Disney

From May 21 to September 12, 2015, New York's Throckmorton Fine Art Gallery will present the multi-faceted beauty of the rebellious artist. It will show portraits of Frida Kahlo taken by 20 influential photographers of the 20th century, including Andre Breton, Dora Maar, Lola Alvarez Bravo, Imogen Cunningham.

3. Photographer Gisele Freund: Frida Kahlo in the garden of the Blue House (La Casa Azul)

“The life and work of Frida Kahlo has inspired the world for decades. By and large, she was a champion of life in overcoming personal tragedies and disappointments. Many of her paintings are self-portraits that show how the artist used her talents to depict her own experiences while facing challenges that would likely break a less resilient person. Her ability to tower over so many obstacles has left an indelible mark and is arguably her greatest achievement,” says Spencer Throckmorton of Throckmorton Fine Art Gallery, which is preparing to launch Mirror Mirror… Frida Kahlo Photographs.

Here are some great photos of Frida Kahlo:

4. Photographer Nicholas Murray: Frida with a deer, 1939

5. Unknown photographer: Frida Kahlo braiding Rosa Covarrubias' hair, 1940

6. Unknown photographer: Frida Kahlo at rest, 1943

7. Photographer Dora Maar: Frida Kahlo at Andre Breton, Paris, 1938-9

8. Photographer Hector Garcia: Portrait of painting Frida Kahlo, 1940

9. Photographer Nicholas Murray: Frida Kahlo and Chavela Vargas, 1945

10. Photographer Gisele Freund: Frida Kahlo in La Casa Azul (in the Blue House), where Kahlo was born and died at the age of 47.

Constant interest is not only creativity, but also the personal life of the artist.

“I don't know how to write love letters. But I want to say that my whole being is open to you. Since I fell in love with you, everything has been mixed up and filled with beauty ... love, like a fragrance, like a current, like rain, ”Frida Kahlo wrote in 1946.

So the famous Mexican artist turned to José Bartoli, a Catalan artist and political refugee who moved to New York to escape the horrors of the Spanish Civil War.

11. Frida Kahlo and Bartoli met when she was recovering from another spinal surgery. Returning to Mexico, she left Bartoli, but their secret romance continued at a distance. The correspondence lasted for several years, reflecting on the artist's painting, her health and relationship with her husband.

On April 15, twenty-five love letters written between August 1946 and November 1949 will become the main lots of the Doyle New York auction house. Bartoli kept more than 100 pages of correspondence until his death in 1995, then the correspondence passed into the hands of his family. Bid organizers expect revenue of up to $120,000.

12. "Do not deny me other desires, which are all that I feel for you and which can only be caused by love."

Despite the fact that they lived in different cities and saw each other extremely rarely, the relationship between the artists continued for three years. They exchanged sincere declarations of love, hidden in sensual and poetic works. Frida painted her double self-portrait Tree of Hope after one of her meetings with Bartoli.

“Bartoli - last night I felt as if many wings were caressing me all over, as if the tips of my fingers were lips that kiss my skin,” Kahlo wrote on August 29, 1946. “The atoms of my body are yours and they vibrate together, we love each other so much. I want to live and be strong, to love you with all the tenderness that you deserve, to give you everything that is good in me, so that you do not feel alone.

Hayden Herrera, Frida's biographer, notes in an essay for Doyle New York that Kahlo signed letters to Bartoli "Maara". This is probably a shortened version of the nickname "Maravillosa". And Bartoli wrote to her under the name "Sonya". This conspiracy was an attempt to avoid the jealousy of Diego Rivera. According to rumors, among other affairs, the artist was in a relationship with Isamu Noguchi and Josephine Baker. Rivera, who endlessly and openly cheated on his wife, turned a blind eye to her entertainment with women, but reacted violently to relationships with men.

13. Letters from Frida Kahlo to José Bartoli have never been published. They reveal new information about one of the most important artists of the 20th century. The correspondence is diluted with old photographs of Kahlo and Bartoli.

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