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ARTISTS

Frida Kahlo painted 55 self-portraits - more than any famous artist before her.

After a bus accident left her bedridden, her parents put a mirror above her bed so she could paint herself.

2 min read
Frida Kahlo painted 55 self-portraits - more than any famous artist before her.
THE FULL STORY

When Frida Kahlo was 18, the bus she was riding in collided with a tram in Mexico City. She broke her spine, pelvis, ribs, and one leg, and was bedridden for months. Stuck in bed, she started painting on a small canvas her father rigged above her, with a mirror so she could see herself.

Many of her paintings showed her own face - strong dark eyebrows, flowers in her hair, traditional Mexican dresses - surrounded by symbols of pain, love, and the country she adored. She painted monkeys, parrots, hearts, and bones. Some of her work looks like a dream and some like a wound.

She married the famous mural painter Diego Rivera (twice - they divorced and then remarried). They were both fiercely Mexican, fiercely political, and fiercely in love and out of love. Today Frida Kahlo’s face is on murals, posters, and stamps around the world - a symbol of resilience and Mexican identity.

Katsushika Hokusai painted The Great Wave when he was 70 years old.
DID YOU KNOW? Katsushika Hokusai painted The Great Wave when he was 70 years old. The Japanese artist made his most famous image late in life - and said he was only just starting to learn how to draw. 2 min read
A cartoonist was once fired from a newspaper for "not being creative enough."
DID YOU KNOW? A cartoonist was once fired from a newspaper for "not being creative enough." A few years later he was drawing a smiling cartoon mouse - and on his way to building the world's biggest entertainment company. 2 min read
William Shakespeare invented around 1,700 English words we still use today.
DID YOU KNOW? William Shakespeare invented around 1,700 English words we still use today. From "eyeball" to "lonely" to "fashionable," the world's most famous playwright basically helped build modern English. 2 min read