La Casa Azul (Photo:BondRocketImagesviaShutterstock)
Mexican artistFrida Kahlois one ofmodern art‘s most popular figures. Today, the artist's many admirers are able to get a glimpse of her life through her introspectiveartand revealingartifacts. While these treasured objects can be found in many major museums around the world, they are most at home inLa Casa Azul, Frida Kahlo's famous “blue house.”
As Kahlo's birthplace, childhood residence, and place of death,La Casa Azulplayed a prominent role in the artist's life. Today, it is known as theFrida Kahlo Museum, an institution that proudly “preserves the personal objects that reveal the private universe of Latin America’s most celebrated woman artist.”
Life inLa Casa Azul
In 1904, Frida Kahlo's father, Guillermo, builtLa Casa Azulin the colorful Colonia del Carmen district of Coyoacán inMexico City. The building featured a French-inspired design when Frida's mother, Matilde, gave birth to her in 1907.
Frida Kahlo in 1913 (Photo:Google Art ProjectviaWikimedia CommonsPublic Domain)
Due to a series of health problems, Kahlo spent much of her childhood and young adulthood confined toLa Casa Azul.At the age of six, she contracted polio and spent nine months in bed. When she was 18, she was involved in a streetcar accident that left her with a broken spinal column and other major injuries. Bored and bedridden, Kahlo began painting. She even had a mirror installed on the ceiling of her bedroom so she could createself-portraits.
In 1931, Kahlo moved out and married fellow painterDiego Rivera. However, she returned to the family home following their divorce eight years later. Kahlo painted some of her most famous paintings after her homecoming, includingThe Two FridasandSelf-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird.
The following year, Kahlo and Rivera reconciled and remarried. Right before her father's death, they moved intoLa Casa Azuland redecorated it. They filled its courtyard with Pre-Columbian statues, built a sunny art studio upstairs, and famously covered its white façade in a coat of cobaltblue paint.
They lived in the house for the remainder of Kahlo's short life. In 1950, she was once again housebound due to her lifelong ailments. She died four years later.
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