The artist Frida Kahlo is a larger-than-life icon, While the artis passed away in 1954, when she was still with us Frida Kahlp propagated her own image in numerous ways through her distinctive style and commanding presence. We take a close look at her life growing up and what led her down the path of painting. We take an in depth look at what early influences would spark her body of work.

A history of abstract art and the lead up to art becoming abstract and why it still feels shocking and confuses people to this day.

Amid the McCarthy hearings and the launch of the civil rights movement in the 1950s, painter Jacob Lawrence sought to frame early American history the way he saw it. His ensuing work, the sprawling series “Struggle,” has been reassembled and is now on a national tour, with its first stop at the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts. Special correspondent Jared Bowen of WGBH visits the exhibit.

Paul Klee, a German WWI veteran said, "The more horrifying this world becomes, the more art becomes abstract." After the war, Klee and other abstract artists taught at the Bauhaus School which was influencial in abstract art and architecture.

Frida Kahlo is known for the masterful self-portraits she made during her turbulent life (1907 - 1954). We are fascinated by Kahlo for good reason. It's impossible to separate her remarkable and tragic life from her work, and she didn't want us to. Her beauty and resilience can make it hard to fully recognize the complexity and importance of the artwork that communicates it. We take a close look at her catalog, and consider what it tells us (and doesn't) about her as a person and her wider body of work.