Frida Kahlo Pencil For Auction at 888 Auctions on Oct 10, 2019

Pencil on paper. Featuring a self-portrait. Signed Frida Kahlo on the upper right corner. Attributed to Frida Kahlo (1907-1954, Mexican). 33 x 24 cm (13 x 9.25 inches). PROVENANCE: Southern Ontario estate

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) was a Mexican painter known for her complex self-portraits. Inspired by pre-Columbian artifacts and Mexican folk art, Kahlo produced bizarre yet beautiful works. Surrealist, André Breton once described her work as a “ribbon around a bomb.” She once said, “My paintings are well-painted, not nimbly but patiently.” “My painting contains in it the message of pain.”

Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo Calderón was born on July 6, 1907, in Mexico City, Mexico. She studied philosophy and medicine as a youth. Kahlo was badly injured in a traumatic bus accident at the age of 18. Because of this, she was confined to a bed for months. She started painting and abandoned her academic pursuits during her recovery. In 1927, she joined the Mexican Communist Party and was introduced to Diego Rivera. They married in 1929, maintaining an often combative relationship in which both were unfaithful.

Though Kahlo and Rivera divorced in 1939, they remarried a year later. Despite chronic pain and destabilizing health problems, Kahlo painted prolifically and was subject in exhibitions in the United States and Europe. Kahlo died in Mexico City, Mexico on July 13, 1954 at the age of 47. Her home, the La Casa Azul (The Blue House) was converted into the Museo Frida Kahlo in 1958.

Today, the her works are held in The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the de Young Museum in San Francisco, and the National Museum of Women in the Art in Washington, D.C., among others.