Kahlo experienced tremendous physical and psychological torment throughout her life. When she was fifteen, she was involved in a near fatal streetcar accident which left her with a crushed pelvis, fractured spine and broken foot. This accident was the beginning of a lifelong battle of operations, infection, amputation, and, eventually, death. It was also the beginning of a remarkable series of paintings about pain, confinement and femininity. Almost all of Kahlo's paintings are self-portraits, an autobiography in paint. Kahlo said that many of her contemporaries "thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn't. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality."

Diego Rivera, Kahlo's husband, gave her... [View Full Biography]