Frida Kahlo's face appears on tote bags, mugs, and dolls worldwide, yet the commercialized icon is almost entirely divorced from the fierce anti-capitalist communist who painted some of the most raw, agonizing autobiographical art of the twentieth century. This deep dive looks past the polished myth to the factual reality of her life and work.

Originally studying to be a physician, Kahlo turned to painting after a catastrophic 1925 bus accident left her with lifelong pain. We trace her marriage to Diego Rivera, her subversion of the retablo format, her rejection of the surrealist label, and a body of work that made viewers into witnesses of female suffering and endurance.

• How a mirror above her bed forced a relentless confrontation with herself
• Her pragmatic reasons for marrying Rivera and her fierce artistic independence ...