For evidence, look no further than a recently resurfaced 1933 article about the painter in theDetroit News.
Kahlo married Rivera in 1929 while in her early twenties.
Soon after, the couple moved from their home in Mexico to San Francisco and then to Detroit.
The moves followed the commissions of Rivera.
In the spring of 1932, he began working on a mural for the Detroit Institute of Arts.
I didn’t study with anyone.
I just started to paint.
The article also includes a famous quote from a laughing Kahlo speaking on her famous husband.
Why refer to a skilled painter as gleefully dabbling in art?
Perhaps the editor had not even read the full piece on Kahlo.
When the article resurfaced online several years ago, readers across the world shared their incredulity at the headline.
As many people pointed out, this sort of editorial choice is often made today.
In the 1933 headline about Kahlo, many modern women saw the erasure or subjugation of their own achievements.
Whoever wrote the headline of theDetroit Newsperhaps would have been surprised at the events of subsequent years.
Kahlo went on to become quite well-known in her lifetime.
She exhibited her work in New York, Paris, and her homeland of Mexico.
In 1939, the Louvre Museum boughtThe Frame, their first acquisition from a Mexican artist.
To learn more about Frida Kahlo, check outMy Modern Met’s infographicon the pioneering artist.
