Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón 1907-1954

1940 (33 yrs old) Frida’s paintings are featured at many exhibitions in Paris, San Francisco and NYC. Frida and Diego remarry on Dec 8, his 53rd birthday.

1941 (34 yrs old) Frida is featured in an exhibition at Boston’s Institute of Modern Art.

1942 (35 yrs old) Frida has two exhibitions in NY, including MOMA.

1943 (36 yrs old) Exhibition at Guggenheim’s Gallery in NYC. Frida joins the faculty of the Education Ministry’s School of Painting and Sculpture (aka “La Esmeralda”). Poor health prevents her from traveling to Mexico City so she teaches at her Coyoacan home to her four students (Los Fridos), including Arturo Garcia Bustos, who authenticated this collection of drawings and letters in 2006.

1944 (37 yrs old) Frida has many medical complications; she starts her diary, which was first published in Spanish in 1995 and in English in 2005.

1945 (38 yrs old) Frida draws on the reverse side of four losing lottery tickets which are exhibited here as Items II, III, IV, V.

1946 (39 yrs old) Frida is awarded National Prize of Arts and Sciences by Mexico’s Ministry of Education. Morphine is prescribed for pain from NYC bone graft operation.

1947 (40 yrs old) Frida asks Carlos Chavez, director of Mexico’s National Institute of Fine Arts to assist three of the four Los Fridos, including Arturo Garcia Bustos, the authenticator of this collection.

1948 (41 yrs old) Frida is reaccepted in Mexico’s Communist Party. Diego begins a two year public affair with Maria Felix, Mexico’s most famous movie star.

1949 (42 yrs old) Frida writes “Portrait of Diego” for her husband’s 50 year retrospective at Mexico City’s Palace of Fine Arts. Her right foot is diagnosed as gangrene.

1950 (43 yrs old) Frida inscribes the box in which she keeps the notes, letters and postcards displayed in this exhibit. Frida has six operations on her spine, and is hospitalized most of the year. See Exhibit Items 11,19,29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36.

1951 (44 yrs old) Frida is confined to a wheel chair. Full time nurses relieve her pain with drug injections.

1952 (45 yrs old) Frida starts a series of 13 still-lifes.

1953 (46 yrs old) Frida�s first one person show is exhibited at Galeria de Arte Contempor�neo in Mexico City. In August Frida�s right leg is amputated to prevent the spread of gangrene. See Exhibit Items 19, 22, 27, 30, 34, 35, 36.

1954 (47 yrs old) Frida completes her last still life, �Viva la Vida� [Hooray for Life]. On July 2, F attends a demonstration accompanied by Diego protesting the CIA�s intervention in Guatemala. Frida dies on July 13 of �pulmonary embolism� but suicide is suspected. Arturo Garcia Bustos is one of her pallbearers.