
Surrealist painter Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) transformed personal suffering into powerful art that has become globally iconic. Born in Coyoacán, Mexico to a German father and mestiza mother, she contracted polio as a child and was severely injured in a bus accident at 18, leaving her with lifelong pain. During recovery, she began painting self-portraits using a mirror attached to her bed canopy.
Kahlo's work draws on Mexican folk art, pre-Columbian imagery, and her own physical and emotional experiences. Of her 143 paintings, 55 are self-portraits exploring identity, pain, and her tumultuous marriage to muralist Diego Rivera. André Breton championed her as a Surrealist, though she rejected the label, saying she painted her own reality. The Two Fridas (1939) shows two versions of herself connected by exposed hearts. Her home, the Blue House (Casa Azul) in Coyoacán, is now a museum. Works hang at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City and museums worldwide. In 2025, The Dream sold for $54.7 million, a record for any female artist.
Explore the places where Kahlo lived, worked, and created masterpieces
19 paintings catalogued with museum locations

Frida Kahlo
Maria Rodriquez de Reyero Collection, New York City, NY, New York

Frida Kahlo
Dolores Olmedo Collection, Mexico City, Mexico City

Frida Kahlo
Private Collection, Unknown

Frida Kahlo
School of Medicine San Francisco (University of California), Los Angeles, CA, San Francisco

Frida Kahlo
Private Collection, Unknown

Frida Kahlo
Dolores Olmedo Collection, Mexico City, Mexico City

Frida Kahlo
Private Collection, Unknown

Frida Kahlo
Dolores Olmedo Collection, Mexico City, Mexico City

Frida Kahlo
Dolores Olmedo Collection, Mexico City, Mexico City

Frida Kahlo
Dolores Olmedo Collection, Mexico City, Mexico City

Frida Kahlo
Dolores Olmedo Collection, Mexico City, Mexico City

Frida Kahlo
Private Collection, Unknown

Frida Kahlo
Private Collection, Unknown

Frida Kahlo
Dolores Olmedo Collection, Mexico City, Mexico City

Frida Kahlo
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
Frida Kahlo, 1939
Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City
Frida Kahlo, 1940
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
Frida Kahlo
Private Collection, Unknown
Frida Kahlo, 1937
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
7 museums display Kahlo's works. Click any museum to see visiting info and the specific works they hold.



Unknown, Unknown
6 works on display
New York, USA
2 works on display



Mexico City, Mexico
7 works on display

San Francisco, United States
1 work on display

San Francisco, US
1 work on display
Mexico City, Mexico
1 work on display

New York, US
1 work on display
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