Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón 1907-1954

1907  Frida is born July 6 to Guillermo Kahlo (German/Austro/Hungarian, photographer, Jewish) and Matilde Calderon y Gonzalez, (Mestiza-Spanish/Indigenous, Catholic) in Coyoacan, near Mexico City.

1910 (3 yrs old)  Mexican Revolution begins.

1914 (7 yrs old)  Frida contracts polio leaving right leg shorter and weaker.

1922 (15 yrs old)  Frida matriculates at National Preparatory School (NPS), Mexico’s most prestigious high school. Frida is one of 35 females in a class of 2000 males, in a pre med program, indicating her brilliant mind and ambitious life plan.

1923 (17 yrs old)  Frida meets Diego Rivera (36 yrs old), who is painting a mural at NPS.

1925 (18 yrs old)  On Sep 17, returning home from school with her boy friend Alejandro Gomez Arias, a streetcar smashes into the bus and Frida sustains multiple severe injuries (a steel rod enters her left side and exits through her vagina; her pelvis, spinal column, collarbone, and two ribs are  broken; her right leg has 11 fractures; her right foot is dislocated and crushed). During convalescence, Frida begins to paint.

1927 (20 yrs old)  Frida joins Young Communist League.

1929 (22 yrs old)  Frida marries Diego (42yrs old) Aug 21. They begin three year trip mainly in US (San Francisco, New York, Detroit).

1931 (24 yrs old)  First public showing of Frida’s paintings.

1932 (25 yrs old)  Frida miscarries in Detroit.

1933 (26 yrs old)  Frida and Diego return to Mexico to live in a Juan O’Gorman designed double house in San Angel near Coyoacan.

1934 (27 yrs old)  Frida has an appendectomy, an abortion, and a foot operation. Frida and Diego separate briefly because Diego is having an affair with Frida’s sister Cristina.

1937 (30 yrs old)  Four of Frida’s paintings are included in a group exhibition at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

1938 (31 yrs old)  Actor Edward G. Robinson buys four paintings, her first major sale. Frida has first major exhibition (25 paintings) at Julien Levy gallery in NY. Andre Breton, leading Surrealist observer, writes the preface of the catalogue.

1939 (32 yrs old)  Frida in France. Frida writes a postcard to Alejandro, but does not mail it. Marcel Duchamp arranges “Mexique” exhibition with Frida’s paintings. Frida and Diego separate again, and Frida moves into Casa Azul (Blue House, where she was raised). Divorce from Diego is final in December.