FRIDA KAHLO
Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo Calderon was born on July 6th, 1907 in Mexico City. Her father was a Hungarian German while her mother was an indigenous Mexican. In her pieces, she frequently explores her European and Mexican identity. As a child, she was actually interested in studying medicine, however, she took some drawing classes but never considered it possible for it to be a career. When she was 18, she was involved in a serious bus accident resulting in 30 operations throughout her lifetime. The surgeries resulted in inability to give birth, which led to multiple miscarriages that she references in her art. After the accident, she had a lot of time to paint while recovering. Soon she begins dating her future husband, Diego Rivera, beginning a tumultuous relationship, including multiple affairs and a remarriage. Her unstable relationship was another source of emotional pain that is displayed in many of her paintings. Most importantly, her art was an exploration of what it meant to be Mexican and female.
"Self Portrait in a Velvet Dress" (1926)
At the age of 19, Kahlo painted her first piece, “Self-Portrait in a Velvet Dress”, in an effort to win her boyfriends heart back. She wanted the painting to be as close as possible to how so that he could look at it when she was not there with him. Details such as her hand positioning indicate a more European style painting. Her right hand is awkwardly stretched representing the hand holding the palette while her left hand is not there because that is the one with the brush. The velvet dress she is wearing is also much more European than the traditional Mexican dresses she paints in her later pieces.
"Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbirds" (1940)
The hummingbird in “Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace with Hummingbird” is a symbol of the Aztec god of war, the black cat is a symbol of bad luck, and the monkey is actually based off a real life monkey gifted to her by boyfriend. She painted this piece after her divorce so there is a lot of pain projected onto this painting. The lush jungle is supposed to symbolize fertility but the black cat brings bad luck in a reference to her multiple miscarriages. The monkey symbolizes Diego causing her pain since it is tugging at the thorn necklace causing her to bleed. The thorn necklace could also represent the Jesus’ crown of thorns representing the sacrifice and pain she felt in her failed relationship.
Kahlo's paintings often feature vivid colors and animals in the background. She has said, "They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn't. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.” However, when one compares her early paintings with later, there is an obvious shift towards more absurd qualities. She also borrows from traditional Catholic style paintings called Ex-Votos. Ex-Voto paintings feature a tragedy and a saint/martyr that saves the day. These paintings are usually commissioned by grateful friends and families after witnessing divine intervention.
Her paintings would often be described as "folkloric" by her peers which fit into "Mexicanism" style art. The clothes in the paintings are all simple cotton peasant garments if not very colorful traditional Mexican dresses, instead of European dresses like in her first painting.
"The Two Fridas" (1939)
"The Wounded Deer" (1946)
At first, Kahlo claimed that “The Two Fridas” was about her and and an imaginary childhood friend, however, she later admits that it is about how lonely she felt being separated from Diego. The Frida on the left is wearing a European style dress and has a torn open heart. On the right is Frida wearing a traditional Tehuana dress with a healthy heart giving blood to the other. The Frida on the right symbolizes the Frida that Diego loved. He always insisted that she wear traditional Mexican dresses rather than European styles in order to embrace their own culture.
After the bus accident, Kahlo was plagued with health issues and her paintings were a way for to project that physical pain onto a canvas. She painted “The Wounded Deer” before a complicated spine surgery which left her bedridden for a year. Notice that she has antlers which only male deer have. This may symbolize her fluid sexuality or the fact that identities are complex and ever changing. The nine arrows and nine trees may be a reference to the nine phases of the underworld due to the pain and suffering she endured.
Many of her paintings are ways for her to express her negative emotions towards her unloyal husband, miscarriages, and physical pain from the accident. She includes animals often because she kept a variety of animals as pets to treat like her own children. Most importantly is her use of symbolism in her pieces. She likes to use trees and their roots as a symbol for personal growth as well as relating to her traditional Mexican heritage. She also includes plenty of mythological influences from Aztec, Christian, and pre-Columbian culture such as skulls, blood, and hearts. In her paintings she often explores opposites including life and death, modern and outdated, European and Mexican, and male and female.
"Without Hope" 1945
Kahlo was extremely ill when painting “Without Hope”, she lost her appetite and had to be force fed fattening foods through the wooden contraption. In the painting she lays naked and weeping through the pain. The covers show multiple microscopic organisms in reference to the illness she had. On the back of the painting she writes, "Not the least hope remains to me . . . Everything moves in time with what the belly dictates . . ." because her health at that point was dependent on how she ate.