Self-portrait With Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird

Frida Kahlo gazes out unflinchingly, a necklace of thorns cutting into her neck and drawing beads of blood, a dead black hummingbird hanging from it, a monkey and a black cat at her shoulders, butterflies and dragonflies above. Painted after her painful divorce from Diego Rivera, the self-portrait turns her suffering into a dense web of personal and Mexican symbols - the thorns of Christ's crown, the hummingbird of love, the watchful animals. Now in Texas, it is among her most haunting works, pain and endurance fused into a steady, ceremonial, unforgettable stare.