Frida Kahlo Events

1907 Jul 6 Frida Kahlo is Born as Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón
Born Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón on July 6, 1907, in Coyocoán, Mexico City, Mexico. Considered one of Mexico’s greatest artists, Frida Kahlo began painting after she was sev...
1913 Frida Kahlo is Diagnosed with Polio
Frida had three sisters, and though her status as daddy’s favorite set her apart from the others, her affliction with polio beginning in 1913 would forever mark her as different. After sh...
1922 Frida Kahlo Attends the National Preparatory School
Frida commutes to Mexico City to begin classes at the National Preparatory School. Frida is one of only 35 girls to attend the prestigious school with hopes of becoming a doctor. At this ...
1925 Sep 17 Frida Kahlo Involved in Bus Accident
On September 17, Frida and her boyfriend, Alejandro Gomez Arias, get onto a bus to head home from school. Shortly afterwards, the bus is stuck broadside by a tram. Frida sustains multiple...
1926 Frida Kahlo Starts Painting
In 1925, Kahlo suffered the bus crash and turned to art during her recovery. During this period, Alejandro never returned her letters. After one frustrating year of prolific painting and ...
1928 Frida Kahlo Joins the Mexican Communist Party
Diego incorporated a portrait of Frida into his "Ballad of the Revolution" mural in the Ministry of Public Education. She appears in a panel he called "Frida Kahlo Distributes the Weapons...
1929 Aug 21 Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera are Married
On August 21, in a civil ceremony in the town hall of Coyoacán, Kahlo becomes Rivera's third wife. Diego was 42 years old, 6'1" tall, and 300 pounds; Frida was 22, 5'3" tall and only 98 p...
1930 Nov 10 Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera Move to San Francisco
On November 10th, Frida and Diego arrive in San Francisco where Diego has been commissioned to paint murals in the Luncheon Club of the San Francisco Stock Exchange and the California Sch...
1931 Frida Kahlo Paints "Frieda and Diego Rivera"
In 1931, while in San Francisco, Frida painted "Frieda and Diego Rivera", a folkloric style double-portrait that may have been based on a wedding photograph. The painting, shown at the "...
1931 Frida Kahlo Paints "Los Tres Amigos"
As a token of their friendship, and to repay him for his service, Kahlo painted a portrait of Dr. Eloesser in 1931 at his home on Leavenworth Street. Executed in oil on cardboard, it show...
1932 Apr Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Move to Detroit
"Frida began work on a series of masterpieces which had no precedent in the history of art - paintings which exalted the feminine quality of truth, reality, cruelty and suffering. Never be..." —Diego Rivera
1933 Mar Frida Kahlo Paints "My Dress Hangs There"
After completing the Detroit murals in March of 1933, Diego and Frida traveled to New York City where Rivera was commissioned to paint a mural in the Rockefeller Center. While Diego paint...
1933 Dec 20 Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera Move to Mexico
On December 20, Frida and Diego return to Mexico. Upon their return they move into the double studio-houses in San Angel designed for them by Juan O'Gorman.
1937 Jan 9 Leon Trotsky and His Wife Come to Stay with Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Mexico
On January 9th, Leon Trotsky and his wife, Natalia Sedova, arrive in Mexico, where he has been granted political asylum, largely through Rivera's intervention. Frida gives them the use of...
1937 Sep 23 Frida Kahlo's First Exhibit in Mexico
On September 23rd, four of Frida's paintings are included in a group exhibition at the Galeria de Arte at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. The first public showing of Frida's...
1938 André Breton Friends Frida Kahlo
In 1938, Kahlo met André Breton, who helped arrange for some exhibits of her work. After a few minor exhibitions as well as one major solo exhibit at the Julian Levy Gallery of New York C...
1938 Nov 1
to 1938 Nov 15
 Frida Kahlo's First Solo Exhibit
In October, Frida traveled to New York for her first one-person exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery, (November 1 - 15). Frida was reluctant to go but Rivera encouraged her by saying it ...
1939 Nov 6 Diego Rivera Divorces Frida Kahlo
In 1939, Kahlo went to live in Paris for a time. There she exhibited some of her paintings and developed friendships such artists as Marcel Duchamp and Pablo Picasso. She divorced Rivera ...
1940 Dec 8 Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Remarry
Dr. Eloesser was also a close friend of Diego who was also in San Francisco at the time. While Frida was recuperating, Dr. Eloesser convinced Rivera to reconcile and remarry Frida. Frida ...
1944 Frida Kahlo Starts Keeping a Diary
She became very depressed and in 1944 she began keeping a diary to document her emotional feelings in text and drawings. She continued to make entries in the diary until her death ten yea...
1954 Jul 13 Frida Kahlo Dies
"I hope the exit is joyful- and I hope never to return- Frida" —Frida Kahlo
2001 Jun 21 Frida Kahlo Honored with U.S. Postage Stamp
On June 21, 2001, both the United States Postal Service (USPS) and the Servicio Postal Mexicano (SEPOMEX) issued a stamp to commemorate Frida Kahlo. A USPS press release on May 21 stated,...
2002 Nov 20 "Frida" is Released
"Frida" chronicles the life Frida Kahlo shared unflinchingly and openly with Diego Rivera, as the young couple took the art world by storm. From her complex and enduring relationship with...
2010 Jul 6 Google Celebrates Frida Kahlo's Birthday with Google Doodle
If an image of a painting that pops up on a computer screen can be considered a viewing, then Frida Kahlo may be setting a record today for the most glimpses of an artist's self-portrait ...