J3401

Frida Kahlo

Artist - Self-portrait

Collins Cover Announcement 

FRIDA KAHLO

This new stamp features Mexican artist Frida Kahlo who was born in 1907 and passed away in 1954. Mostly she painted herself in distorted views that were influenced by Pre-Columbian art and Mexican folk art. Her exterior personality was one that paid great attention to dress and ornamentation while her interior personality was one molded by the physical body-crippling pain caused by a bus accident when she was a teenager. This conflict within her caused her paintings to have a haunting complexity. The almost masculine appearance of her self-portraits belied her actual incredible beauty.

Frida became a polio victim at the age of six and, as a result, had a deformed right leg. Then, with the bus accident twelve years later, she decided to become a doctor. During her convalescence, she started doing self-portraits from her hospital bed and would continue this practice after the 35 operations she had during her lifetime. It was these paintings for which she would become famous. In 1928 she became involved with the Mexican Communist Party and for this reason it has been somewhat controversial that she was chosen to be on a U.S. stamp.

The stamp is meant to be a tribute to Kahlo's contribution to the fine arts. Personally she was very attractive and wore colorful Tehuana Mexican dresses and a lot of jewelry. This is the Frida that I wanted to show on my hand painted cachet, and I must say that the final result is a beautiful First Day Cover that will brighten your collection. It is not the young Frida whose body endured the pain of polio and the bus accident. It is not the distorted Frida of the self-paintings done by the artist's own hand. Rather, it is the real-life appearance of the lovely Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Collins 03401 $12.25.