Laid Bare: Frida’s Inner World

Frida Kahlo had a complex medical history, undergoing more than 22 surgeries throughout her life. In 1913, at the age of 6, Frida contracted polio, leaving her left leg thinner and her right leg shorter. However, the majority of her severe medical issues were to begin at the age of 18. In 1925, on the way home from school, a streetcar crashed into the bus she was riding. This near-fatal accident left her with serious spinal fractures, a broken pelvis, 11 fractures in her right foot, a dislocated elbow and a serious puncture wound in her abdomen. Following the accident, Frida lived with these injuries and chronic pain until her passing on 13 July 1954.

Throughout her artistic practice, Frida embraced her broken body, finding beauty in her fragmented form.

Frida Kahlo’s spine was severely damaged following the streetcar accident in 1925. Her spine never fully healed from the trauma of the accident. In an attempt to manage the chronic pain, Frida had to wear medical corsets for the rest of her life.

In 1946, after being bedridden for four months due to severe spinal pain, Frida agreed to undergo a spinal fusion surgery in New York. The surgery, however, provided little relief. In 1950, her condition worsened and the artist was eventually admitted into the American British Cowdray Hospital in Mexico, where she stayed for nearly a year, undergoing seven operations on her spine.

At the age of 6, Frida Kahlo contracted polio virus, resulting in her right leg being shorter and thinner. This physical disability was further complicated by the streetcar accident, in 1925, that caused 11 fractures in her right foot. As a result, Frida lived with chronic pain in her lower limbs, often having to be treated for foot ulcers that were largely due to vascular insufficiency. Eventually doctors amputated five phalanges, or bones in Frida’s right foot as well as a smaller bone, the sesamoid. 

The last major recorded surgery Frida Kahlo underwent was an amputation of her right leg, on 11 August 1953—less than a year before her passing. The amputation was performed due to Frida having been diagnosed with gangrene—a medical condition that involves the death of body tissue due to a lack of blood flow or a serious bacterial infection.

Frida Kahlo spent a large part of her adult life in hospitals following her near fatal streetcar accident in 1925, resulting in lifelong medical complications and chronic pain. Frida was regularly admitted into and discharged from medical facilities throughout her life. Notable hospitals include the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and the American British Cowdray (ABC) Hospital in Mexico City.

The ABC hospital was where Frida stayed for almost a year in 1950—undergoing seven spinal surgeries—and where in 1953 her lower right limb was amputated under the care of Dr. Juan Farill. Frida was treated at the ABC hospital until her passing in 1954.

Suffering from chronic pain and lifelong injuries, Frida Kahlo encountered many doctors, each attempting to provide a medical solution to her health complications. Having undergone over 30 medical procedures, she spent long periods in hospital, eventually developing close relationships with her doctors. She often confided in them, writing personal letters asking for their opinion on her private life—including her marriage—and even painted self-portraits dedicated to them. These doctors were both trusted medical advisors and emotional supports to Frida.

Frida once famously said, ‘I don’t paint dreams, I paint my own reality’. The damaged body she frequently painted was not imagined but a genuine expression of her lived experience.

Examining Frida’s personal relationship to her doctors, her intimate diary entries, the medical equipment she used daily and her handwritten letters to close friends, highlights the fact that Frida Kahlo experienced so much more than she expressed in her artistic practice, a true manifestation of the human condition.

The objects photographed here were used by Frida to enable her to go about her everyday life—considering her damaged body. She often sat in her wheelchair too weak to walk, she wore corsets to support her weak spine and her prosthetic leg took the place of her amputated right leg.

Listen to exclusive interviews with Cristina Kahlo Alcalá speaking about how she acquired these unique medical documents from the American British Cowdry Hospital where Frida Kahlo spent long periods of time. These interviews also reveal the person Frida was beyond the persona she became known for.

Laid Bare also features interviews with doctors and medical experts from Singapore, ranging from an orthopedic surgeon to an anesthetist and a clinical psychologist, who provide contemporary diagnoses of Frida’s medical conditions, discussing the physical and mental challenges she would have experienced.