By always repeating the same facial features, Kahlo drew from the depiction of goddesses and saints in indigenous and Catholic cultures. She concentrated more frequently on this format towards the end of the 1930s, thus reflecting changes in Mexican society.

Before the revolution, Mexican folk culture – a mixture of indigenous and European elements – was disparaged by the elite, who claimed to have purely European ancestry and regarded Europe as the definition of civilization which Mexico should imitate. Similarly, Nancy Deffebach has stated that Kahlo "created herself as a subject who was female, Mexican, modern, and powerful", and who diverged from the usual dichotomy of roles of mother/whore allowed to women in Mexican society.Despite her personal challenges, her work continued to grow in popularity and was included in numerous group shows around this time. In 1922, Kahlo was accepted to the elite National Preparatory School, where she focused on natural sciences with the aim of becoming a physician.

An understanding of Frida Kahlo, the person as well as the paintings, requires a setting aside of conventional thoughts – and dates, as the case may be. The six months spent in San Francisco were a productive period for Kahlo, [24] who further developed the folk art style she had adopted in Cuernavaca.i18331555 |b 1130001611643 |d pc |g - |m |h 27 |x 1 |t 0 |i 11 |j 2 |k 010630 |n 01-27-2023 01:15 |o - |a 759. Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter best known for her uncompromising and brilliantly colored self-portraits that deal with such themes as identity, the human body, and death.