Born in 1907, she died in 1954 in Coyoacan, Mexico City. Her full name was Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo Calderón.

She studied in the Colegio Alemán and the Mexico City National Preparatory School.

In 1925, she suffered a tragic accident the consequences of which lasted until her death. During a long period of convalescence she began painting her face by copying it from a mirror secured at the foot of her bed. Initially she was a realist who painted family and friends and also liked painting flowers. However, later on, due to the intensity of her feelings and ailing body, she increasingly began painting images of herself with dreamlike and often brutal expressions. Some of her works of art have even been associated with surrealist trends because of their introspective nature. In 1929 she married Diego Rivera whom she divorced in 1940 but remarried one year later. She taught painting at the School of Plastic Arts and was a member of the Mexican Culture Seminary. In 1938, she exhibited her own work for the first time at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York.  Some of her work was included in the 1939 “Mexique” Exhibition held in the Renou et Colle Gallery in Paris and other collections were exhibited in Mexico during their lifetime. She participated in the 1940 International Surrealism Exhibition at the Mexico City Modern Arts Gallery. Institutions as renowned as the New York Museum of Modern Art and the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris house some of her work.