Frida Kahlo

An art-historical icon, Frida Kahlo made herself and her life the subject of her work. At age 18, she suffered broken bones and a shattered spine in a bus accident. Her uterus was also injured, making it impossible for her to have children. Her husband, the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, was a frequent philanderer, and she had affairs of her own, with both men and women. Her canvases, which blended Surrealism with Mexican painting tradition, alluded to her tumultuous life, which remained dramatic until the end: Suffering from a illness which kept her confined in her final years, she attended the opening of her first solo show in Mexico by having herself carried to the gallery in her bed.