The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo . Life of Frida . Timeline

1950	Frida Kahlo Frida undergoes numerous operations on her spine and spends most of the year in the hospital. World and U.S. Events The Korean War begins. Joseph McCarthy begins his hunt for communists in the United States and the "Red Scare" is underway. Art Movements Abstract Expressionalism (1940-1960s); Pop Art (1950-1960s)

1951	Frida Kahlo Frida is now confined to a wheelchair and has nurses taking care of her. She is taking large doses of painkillers. Works Completed: Self-Portrait With the Portrait of Doctor Farill Weeping Coconuts World and U.S. Events Suspected spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are sentenced to death. J.D. Salinger writes Catcher in the Rye. Art Movements Abstract Expressionalism (1940-1960s); Pop Art (1950-1960s)

1952	Frida Kahlo Frida begins a series of still-life paintings and actively works to collect a list of signatures in support of the peace movement. World and U.S. Events Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected U.S. president. Dick Clark's American Bandstand debuts. The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea are published. Art Movements Abstract Expressionalism (1940-1960s); Pop Art (1950-1960s)

1953	Frida Kahlo Frida's right leg is amputated below the knee. She is a dying woman when her work is exhibited at the Mexico City Gallery of Contemporary Art, the first exhibit of Frida's work to be held in Mexico. She hosts the show from her four-poster bed. World and U.S. Events Stalin dies. Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay climb Mt. Everest. Crick and Watson discover the double helix of DNA. Georges Braque introduces the Cubist painting Apples. Arthur Miller's The Crucible premieres. Art Movements Abstract Expressionalism (1940-1960s); Pop Art (1950-1960s)

1954	Frida Kahlo Days before her death Frida attends a protest against CIA intervention in Guatemala. Frida dies on July 13 of a pulmonary embolism at the Blue House. Her body lies in state at the Palace of Fine Arts and crowds of admirers come to pay their final farewell to the artist. She is cremated a few days later. Works Completed: Frida and Stalin Marxism Will Give Health to the Sick Viva la Vida Mexico Over 10,000 Mexicans take to the streets to protest the CIA-led ouster of Guatemala's President Jacobo Arbenz and the imposition of a new government headed by Gen. Castillo Armas. World and U.S. Events A CIA-supported coup in Guatemala overthrows President Jacob Arbenz as the United States begins to fear that Latin American will fall to communism. Vietnam is divided into north and south. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka reaches the Supreme Court of the United States and the decision is made that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." Elvis records several singles. Art Movements Abstract Expressionalism (1940-1960s); Pop Art (1950-1960s)

For more information on the Art Movements listed in the timeline, visit the Glossary in our Educational Guides section.