1907
On 6 July Frida Kahlo was born in Coyoacán, a district of Mexico City. Her full name is Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón.
1913
Kahlo was wrongly diagnosed with poliomyelitis. It was actually spina bifida, a disease that leaves her with a thinner right leg than her left.
1922
Kahlo is one of the few women to be admitted to the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria in Mexico City, one of the most prestigious schools, where she studies medicine. Here, she comes into contact with a group of student activists and intellectuals who will influence her political views.
1925
Frida is involved in a serious car accident: a tram hits the bus she was travelling on. She suffers multiple fractures to her spine, ribs, leg and pelvis. This event will mark her life, leading her to suffer chronic pain and immobility. During her long convalescence, she began to paint.
1929
Frida married Diego Rivera, the famous Mexican muralist, 20 years her senior and with two failed marriages behind him. Their relationship will be tumultuous, characterised by mutual infidelities (for Kahlo also with women), separations and much passion.
1930-1933
Frida accompanies Diego to the United States, where he works on various art projects, including murals in Detroit and New York. During this period, Frida suffers a miscarriage and paints works inspired by pain and failed motherhood. During these years she also met the photographer Nickolas Muray.
1938
Kahlo held his first solo exhibition in New York at Julien Levy’s gallery. The event marked the beginning of the international recognition of her work. In the same year, she met the surrealist poet André Breton, who defined her art as ‘surrealist’, a definition she rejected.
1939
Frida exhibited in Paris and met artists such as Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp. In the same year, following yet another affair, she divorces Diego Rivera. The same year she is hospitalised for severe kidney problems.
1940
Frida and Diego remarry. However, their relationship continues to be complicated. Frida faces serious health problems, undergoing numerous operations.
1943
Begins teaching at the Escuela de Pintura y Escultura ‘La Esmeralda’ in Mexico City, becoming an influential figure for young artists.
1946
She is awarded the National Painting Prize was for the work ‘Moses’. The following year, she participated with 45 self-portraits in the ‘Exhibition of Mexican Artists from the 18th to the 20th Century’.
1950
Frida spent nine months in hospital, where she had to undergo seven operations on the same area of her spine.
1953
She held her first major solo exhibition in Mexico. Despite her critical health condition, Frida attended the opening lying on a bed brought into the gallery.
In the same year, her leg is amputated due to an infection, and she attempts suicide.
1954
On 13 July Frida Kahlo dies at her home in Coyoacán at the age of just 47. The cause of death is officially a pulmonary embolism.