The striking images of Frida Kahlo (1907–54) were often expressions of trauma. Through a near-fatal traffic accident at the age of 18, poor health, a turbulent marriage, miscarriage, and childlessness, she transformed her ordeals into revolutionary art. Through literal or metaphorical self-portraiture, Kahlo stares boldly at the viewer, rejecting her fate as a passive victim while weaving expressions of her experience into a hybrid language that combines the real and the surreal: hair, roots, veins, tendrils, and trumpets. Many of her works also explore the communist political ideas she shared with her husband, Diego Rivera. The artist described her paintings as “the most honest and real thing I could do to express what I felt inside and outside of me.” This book introduces Kahlo's rich body of work to explore her relentless determination as an artist and her importance as a painter, feminist icon, and pioneer of Latin American culture.