FRIDA KAHLO L'Autobus, 2004

Frida Kahlo (1907 – 1954) was a Mexican painter, who mostly painted self-portraits. Inspired by Mexican popular culture, she employed a naive folk art style to explore questions of identity, postcolonialism, gender, class, and race in Mexican society. Her paintings often had strong autobiographical elements and mixed realism with fantasy. In addition to belonging to the post-revolutionary Mexicanidad movement, which sought to define a Mexican identity, Kahlo has been described as a surrealist or magical realist. Her work has been celebrated internationally as emblematic of Mexican national and indigenous traditions, and by feminists for what is seen as its uncompromising depiction of the female experience and form.