First study, 2012-13: Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and her husband, the painter Diego Rivera

Magnet fine arts / Frida Kahlo
Originally uploaded by trudeau

Mexico is an impoverished nation - though there are quite a number of middle class and rich Mexicans - that has a distinct culture.

Mexicans are mostly a blend of indigenous peoples and Europeans.

Frida Kahlo was mestizo (mixed background), like most Mexicans. her mother was Amerindian and her father was German.

Kahlo's life was marked by tragedy. She had polio as a child. As a teen she was in a devastating bus-trolley wreck. Her life was punctuated by surgeries in a continuing attempt to correct spinal and foot problems.

She also married the right / wrong man. Her husband was globally famous for his murals. He was what is called a force majeure. Aka, a player.

Frida, also a wild being, became a player, too.

While in one of her frequent and lengthy periods of convalescence - confined to bed in a plaster cast - she began to paint.

By the 1940's she was known as an accomplished painter in Paris and NYC as well as Mexico.

She painted some 70 self-portraits. They were full of anguish, as you will see.

The biography we will watch on youtube begins here.

You must also learn the basics of Mexico:
the pyramids, the food, the ancient capital cities of Teotihuacan and Tenochtitlan, Moctezuma and Cortez, the folkloric clothing and religious signposts such as Dia de Los Muertos.