Investigation: Frida Kahlo by Sherri Barry

Frida Kahlo
ARTWORKS

The Two Fridas, 1939

The Accident, 17 September 1926

Self Portrait, 1941

Photo of Frida Kahlo

The Broken Column, 1944

Henry Ford Hospital, 1932

The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Me, Diego, and Mr. Xolotl, 1949

The Suicide of Dorothy Hale

Diego en mi pensamiento (Diego in my Thoughts)

Frida Self Portrait

Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair. 1940

BIOGRAPHY

Frida Kahlo, born Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón, was a Mexican artist born July 6, 1907. She grew up with a conservative Catholic mother and a father who was an atheist. Frida suffered very serious injuries in a bus accident when she was a teenager. These injuries affected her her entire life and are starkly displayed in her art as well. Her work revealed the most intimate details of her life from her physical pain to her tumultuous life with her husband, Diego Rivera, who was a Mexican artist famous for painting murals. Frida flirted with her sexuality and often dressed as man, as well as dressing in bright, Tehuana costumes. She had sexual relationships with men and women. One of her most notorious affairs was with Leon Trotsky the Russian revolutionary. Frida was bawdy and loved to drink and swear. Although she lived most of her life in Mexico, she did exhibit in New York and Paris and became friendly with surrealists like Pablo Picasso, André Breton. Picasso admired her work and gave a gift of earrings, which she wore in the painting ‘Self-Portrait Dedicated to Dr. Eloesser’. Frida lived, suffered, created and expressed her life through her work. She eventually passed away on July 13, 1954. Frida’s life had many fascinating aspects, some of which are listed below:

• She loved her husband and stayed with him although he betrayed her.
  
• She used her art to heal herself.
  
• She was successful in what was seen as a “man’s world.
  
• She was incredibly open and available in her expression.
  
• She expressed herself with humor and comic sense.
  

THEME AND STYLE

“I was considered a Surrealist. That is not right. I never painted dreams. What I depicted was my reality”. --Frida Kahlo

It is difficult to assign an exact style to Frida’s work, because her work is so incredibly unique and personal. She was aligned with European Surrealists, and her art has also been described as “folk” or "primitive" art”. Some might also put her art into the category of women’s or feminist art because of her powerful depictions of herself.

ANALYZE

In Frida’s work 'The Broken Column, 1944'

we see so many things all a once. Her ability to capture her feelings and emotions is striking. The personal honesty she displays in this piece is not something seen often. The colors are strong and her brush strokes are sure. Frida shows us her horrible injury, her pain, her strength and her beauty. She sees her suffering in a Christ-like way with nails throughout her body. Her environment is harsh and broken like her body, but she is still proud and defiant. The composition follows the title, and the structure is straight up through the painting. Broken Frida is the column, but repaired she continues in a powerful way.

PERSONAL RESPONSE

Frida Kahlo’s art has long been inspirational to me. I am struck by her willingness to show her pain, her struggles and her emotions. She was brave in the way she would show her own body in various states. She didn’t glamorize herself in her art. She willingly revealed her knitted brow and small moustache. Her strong cultural identification might be considered naive or embarrassing to some, but she had a lot of pride in her Mexican heritage and proudly showed herself in traditional costumes.

I enjoy the way she saw her self as part of nature, and seemed to yearn to be connected with the universe and related to nature. I see this desire displayed in the pieces

Roots (Raices) 1943 and 'The Little Deer 1946',

Frida’s sense of humor was evident in many of her pieces and showed a side that was not necessarily obvious. When I look at 'Self-Portrait with Monkey'

I think she couldn’t have taken herself too seriously all of the time. She represents herself as serious, with a proud demeanor and she holds her head high, although many of the scenes she put herself into were dreamy or even comical. She was willing to show her emotions in regard to her husband and what an important part he played in her life.

There is no way to look at Frida’s work without seeing her as self-absorbed. The greater portion of her life’s work was about her personal life, her health, her body, her romantic life and her feelings about death and the afterlife. Was she narcissistic? Perhaps she was, but she did have fascinating subject matter.

As a person I found her to be both incredibly strong in her many personal trials and at the same time very weak in the way she accepted the many betrayals of Diego Riviera. At the end of her life she seemed at peace and ready to accept death and what lay beyond. Frida was like any of us trying to find our way in the world, but with an extraordinary gift for sharing.