Frida Kahlo de Rivera famously known as Frida Kahlo and whose original name was Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón was born on 6th July 1907, in Coyoacan Mexico. She was a Mexican painter distinguished by her uncompromising and also, brilliantly colored self-portraits that dealt with themes such as the human body, identity, and death. After marrying Diego Rivera, she changed her painting style and personality and began wearing her traditional Tehuana dress that later became her trademark. Kahlo’s work was well recognized worldwide and she traveled to different countries to show her work and skills.
Frida started her painting job after she got involved in an accident, to keep herself occupied. Here is where she made a mark as a great painter. Some of her notable work include, ‘Henry Ford Hospital’, ‘Self Portrait in a Velvet Dress’, ‘Diego and I’, and ‘The Two Fridas’, among others. Frida was always way ahead of her time. Amazingly, her paintings represented strong feminist leanings. Frida Kahlo was an idol of patience, strength, and endurance.
Additionally, she was an outspoken individual and the intensity of her agony is clearly described by her pictures. Below is a collection of Frida Kahlo quotes, thoughts, and sayings obtained from her sketches paintings, and drawings. Read through the entire quotes to get the best inspiration and understand her agony as well as her unique way of seeing the world.
The Best Frida Kahlo Quotes
1. “Nothing is absolute. Everything changes, everything moves, everything revolves, everything flies and goes away.”– Frida Kahlo
2. “You deserve the best, the very best, because you are one of the few people in this lousy world who are honest to themselves, and that is the only thing that really counts.”– Frida Kahlo
3. “It was worthwhile to come here only to see why Europe is rotting, why all this people – good for nothing – are the cause of all the Hitlers and Mussolinis.”– Frida Kahlo
4. “I paint my own reality. The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration.”– Frida Kahlo
5. “You deserve the best, the very best because you are one of the few people in this lousy world who are honest to themselves, and that is the only thing that really counts.”– Frida Kahlo
6. “I find that Americans completely lack sensibility and good taste. They are boring, and they all have faces like unbaked rolls.”– Frida Kahlo
7. “Really, I do not know whether my paintings are surrealist or not, but I do know that they are the frankest expression of myself.”– Frida Kahlo
8. “Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light. Tragedy is the most ridiculous thing.”– Frida Kahlo
9. “I tried to drown my sorrows, but the bastards learned how to swim, and now I am overwhelmed by this decent and good feeling.”– Frida Kahlo
10. “There have been two great accidents in my life. One was the train the other was Diego. Diego was by far the worst.”– Frida Kahlo
11. “They are so damn “intellectual” and rotten that I can’t stand them anymore….I would rather sit on the floor in the market of Toluca and sell tortillas, than have anything to do with those “artistic” bitches of Paris.”– Frida Kahlo
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12. “The most important thing for everyone in Gringolandia is to have ambition and become ‘somebody,’ and frankly, I don’t have the least ambition to become anybody.”– Frida Kahlo
13. “Pain, pleasure and death are no more than a process for existence. The revolutionary struggle in this process is a doorway open to intelligence.”– Frida Kahlo
14. “To feel the anguish of waiting for the next moment and of taking part in the complex current (of affairs) not knowing that we are headed toward ourselves, through millions of stone beings – of bird beings – of star beings – of microbe beings – of fountain beings toward ourselves.”– Frida Kahlo
15. “Your word travels the entirety of space and reaches my cells which are my stars then goes to yours which are my light.”– Frida Kahlo
16. “I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.”– Frida Kahlo
17. “I cannot speak of Diego as my husband because that term, when applied to him, is an absurdity. He never has been, nor will he ever be, anybody’s husband.”– Frida Kahlo
18. “I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do. I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me, too.”– Frida Kahlo
19. “People in general are scared to death of the war and all the exhibitions have been a failure, because the rich don’t want to buy anything.”– Frida Kahlo
20. “Painting completed my life. I lost three children and a series of other things that would have fulfilled my horrible life. My painting took the place of all of this. I think work is the best.”– Frida Kahlo
21. “Through the round numbers and the colored nerves the stars are made and the worlds are sounds.”– Frida Kahlo
22. “Mankind owns its destiny, and its destiny is the earth. We are destroying it until we have no destiny.”– Frida Kahlo
23. “I was a child who went about in a world of colors… My friends, my companions, became women slowly; I became old in instants.”– Frida Kahlo
24. “The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration.”– Frida Kahlo
25.” I am in agreement with everything my father taught me and nothing my mother taught me.”– Frida Kahlo
26. “Pain, pleasure and death are no more than a process for existence. The revolutionary struggle in this process is a doorway open to intelligence.”– Frida Kahlo
27. “You deserve a lover who makes you feel safe, who can consume this world whole if he walks hand in hand with you; someone who believes that his embraces are a perfect match with your skin.”– Frida Kahlo
28. “What I wanted to express very clearly and intensely was that the reason these people had to invent or imagine heroes and gods is pure fear. Fear of life and fear of death.”– Frida Kahlo
29. “No moon, sun, diamond, hands — fingertip, dot, ray, gauze, sea. pine green, pink glass, eye, mine, eraser, mud, mother, I am coming.”– Frida Kahlo
30. “I leave you my portrait so that you will have my presence all the days and nights that I am away from you.”– Frida Kahlo
31. “It was worthwhile to come here only to see why Europe is rottening, why all this people – good for nothing – are the cause of all the Hitlers and Mussolinis.”– Frida Kahlo
32. “This upper class is disgusting and I’m furious at all these rich people here, having seen thousands of people in abject squalor.”– Frida Kahlo
33. “Perhaps it is expected that I should lament about how I have suffered living with a man like Diego. But I do not think that the banks of a river suffer because they let the river flow, nor does the earth suffer because of the rains, nor does the atom suffer for letting its energy escape. To my way of thinking, everything has its natural compensation.”– Frida Kahlo
34. “Sexism and racism are parallel problems. You can compare them in some ways, but they’re not at all the same. But they’re both symptoms inside the white male power structure.”– Frida Kahlo
35. “I love you more than my own skin and even though you don’t love me the same way, you love me anyways, don’t you? And if you don’t, I’ll always have the hope that you do, and I’m satisfied with that.”– Frida Kahlo
36. “I am my own muse, I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to know better.”– Frida Kahlo
37. “To paint is the most terrific thing that there is, but to do it well is very difficult.”– Frida Kahlo
38. “It is terrifying to see the rich having parties day and night while thousands and thousands of people are dying of hunger.”– Frida Kahlo
39. “All this anger has simply made me understand better that I love you more than my own skin, and that even though you don’t love me as much, you love me a little anyway — don’t you? If this is not true, I’ll always be hopeful that it could be, and that’s enough for me.”– Frida Kahlo
40. “I am nothing but a “small damned” part of a revolutionary movement. Always revolutionary never dead, never useless.”– Frida Kahlo
41. “My blood is a miracle that, from my veins, crosses the air in my heart into yours.”– Frida Kahlo
42. “So forgotten and so firm. Snail shells and the bride-doll, is yours too – I mean, it is you.”– Frida Kahlo
43. “Don’t build a wall around your own suffering, it may devour you from the inside.”– Frida Kahlo
44. “You deserve a lover who takes away the lies and brings you hope, coffee, and poetry.”– Frida Kahlo
45. “And to hold onto some dogged idea forever is a little rigid and maybe naive.”– Frida Kahlo
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Frida Kahlo – The Woman Behind the Legend
Learn about the life and art of Mexican surrealist painter Frida Kahlo, who explored disability, relationships and Mexican culture in her work. In 1925, Frida Kahlo was on her way home from school in Mexico City when the bus she was riding collided with a streetcar. She suffered near-fatal injuries and her disability became a major theme in her paintings. Over the course of her life, she would establish herself as the creator and muse behind extraordinary pieces of art. In this excellent Ted Ed talk, Iseult Gillespie dives into the life and work of Frida Kahlo. Definitely worth a watch if you want to learn more about Ms. Kahlo’s life and impact.
Related: Van Gogh’s Best Quotes
Summary
Frida Kahlo was an amazing artist whose work is well known in the universe. Her Frame (c.1938), made Frida the first 20th-century Mexican artist to be recognized or rather include in the Museum’s collection.
Frida was an amazing artist, and her life and work remain an inspiration to many upcoming artists.
Image Credit: “Frida Kahlo” by mariadeoro is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0
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