a bit of culture

Today, Lenka and me went to the house of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. It was amazing.
Firda Kahlo was a remarkable artist of the twentieth century in Mexico. She had a very serious bus/accident when she was 19, which had a strong impact on all her life. Just to mention some: even walking was painful for her and making love was almost impossible.

She painted using vibrant colors in a style that was influenced by indigenous cultures of Mexico as well as European influences that include Realism, Symbolism, and Surrealism. Many of her works are self-portraits that symbolically express her own pain. Kahlo was married to and influenced by the Mexican/Spanish muralist Diego Rivera and shared his Communist views. Although she has long been recognized as an important painter, public awareness of her work has become more widespread since the 1970s. Her "Blue" house in Coyoacán, Mexico City is a popular museum, donated by Diego Rivera after his death in 1957.

On 17 September 1925, Kahlo was riding in a bus when the vehicle collided with a trolley car. She suffered serious injuries in the accident, including a broken spinal column, a broken collarbone, broken ribs, a broken pelvis, eleven fractures in her right leg, a crushed and dislocated right foot, and a dislocated shoulder. An iron handrail impaled her abdomen, piercing her uterus, which seriously damaged her reproductive ability. Though she recovered from her injuries and eventually regained her ability to walk, she was plagued by relapses of extreme pain for the remainder of her life. The pain was intense and often left her confined to a hospital or bedridden for months at a time. She would undergo as many as 35 operations in her life as a result of the accident, mainly on her back and her right leg and foot.

After the accident, Frida Kahlo turned her attention away from the study of medicine to begin a full-time painting career. The accident left her in a great deal of pain while she recovered in a full body cast; she painted to occupy her time during her temporary state of immobilization. Her self-portraits became a dominant part of her life when she was immobile for three months after her accident. "I paint myself because I am often alone and I am the subject I know best" reflects her inner feelings about both her art and her psychological state. Frida's mother had a special easel made for her so she could paint in bed, and her father lent her his box of oil paints and some brushes.[6] Drawing on personal experiences including her troubled marriage, her painful miscarriages, and her numerous operations, Kahlo's works are often characterized by their stark portrayals of pain. Of her 143 paintings, fifty-five are self-portraits, which frequently incorporate symbolic portrayals of her physical and psychological wounds.

As a young artist, Kahlo approached the famous Mexican Diego Rivera, whom she had previously admired, and asked him for his advice on pursuing art as a career. He immediately recognized her talent and her unique expression as truly special and uniquely Mexican. He encouraged her development as an artist, and began an intimate relationship with Frida. They were married in 1929, to the disapproval of Frida's mother. They were often referred to as "The Elephant and the Dove." The nickname originated when Kahlo's father noticed their extreme difference in size.

Their marriage was often tumultuous. Both Kahlo and Rivera had notoriously fiery temperaments and both had numerous extramarital affairs. The openly bisexual Kahlo had affairs with both men and women (including Leon Trotsky);[2] Rivera knew of and tolerated her relationships with women, but her relationships with men made him jealous. For her part, Kahlo was outraged when she learned that Rivera had an affair with her younger sister, Cristina. The couple eventually divorced, but remarried in 1940; their second marriage was as turbulent as the first.

Sorry that I copied so much about her, but I found extremely touching to be in these two persons' houses - 'cause they lived in 2 separate ones, which have a connection - and all their things. Frida had the smaller house, the blue one, and Diego the bigger brown one. Both have a roof terrace, and these 2 terraces are connected with a bridge. Knowing how rapsodical their relationship was, and seeing these buildings was