Best known for her striking self-portraits, Mexican painter Frida Kahlo was influenced by pre-Columbian art and Mexican folk art. Her works embody the pride of Mexico’s national patriotic movement, called Mexicanidad, that pulsed throughout the country following the Mexican Revolution of the early 20th century. This sense of Mexican patriotism in Kahlo’s work has significantly influenced Chicana artists in the United States. While a teenager, Kahlo sustained serious injuries in a bus accident, which would affect her health for the rest of her life. Triumph and suffering in her own life and in the lives of women in general are recurrent themes in Kahlo’s paintings. Since the mid-1970s, she has been a role model for women in the Mexican-American and feminist communities.
