Frida Kahlo

Born in 1907 to a German father and mestiza mother, Kahlo grew up in Coyoacán's La Casa Azul and seemed bound for medical school until a bus accident at 18 left her with lifelong pain and forced a turn toward art. She sought out muralist Diego Rivera for advice on whether to pursue painting; courtship followed, then marriage in 1929 and years of travel through Mexico and the U.S. Kahlo joined the Communist Party in 1927, developed a style rooted in Mexican folk culture and pre-Columbian imagery, and caught the eye of André Breton, who arranged her first solo show in New York in 1938. The Louvr…