Frida Kahlo drew upon the folk culture of Mexico to develop a visionary style of self-portraiture. Merging fantasy with realism, she gave visual form to the suffering she had endured following a traumatic injury and a lifetime of ill health, while also probing the politics of gender, class, and race from her perspective as a committed communist.
Kahlo made several important visits to the United States during the 1930s. Her first solo exhibition, held in New York City in 1938, was followed by others in the 1940s. It was not until the late 1970s, however, that she gained widespread critical recognition. By championing personal experience and cultural identity as valid subjects for art, Kahlo has become a cultural icon for feminists, the Latin community, and others.
Painter Magda Pach and her husband, the writer and artist Walter Pach, were among the establishment figures who fervently supported Mexican art in the United States during the 1920s and 1930s.