Mysteries of Frida Kahlo Lesson 63

 

Frida Kahlo  (July 6, 1907

-Frida Kahlo is among the most famous Mexican artists of the 1900s.  She was known especially f

her disturbing style and her many unsmiling self-portraits.

-Frida's artwork often included skulls, daggers, bleeding hearts and her personal exotic pets and 

fantasy animals.

-The pain Kahlo expressed in her paintings came from her own life.  Her paintings became 

chronicles of her life experiences with her family and her husband the famous 

Mexican artists Diego Rivera.

-Frida was born Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderon in Coyoacan, Mexico on

July 6, 1907.  She suffered from the disease of polio at age 6 and walked with a limp 

the rest of her life.

-At 18 she was nearly killed in a bus crash.  Her injuries were so severe that she spent many

weeks in the hospital.  She felt physical pain throughout her life.

-Kahlo began painting self-portraits while in the hospital.  Once she was well, she showed 

the paintings to the famous Mexican painter Diego Rivera.

-Rivera was enthusiastic and encouraged her and promoted her work to others. Kahlo and Rivera 

married in 1929. They divorced in 1939 but remarried in 1941.

-During her life Kahlo was more famous in the United States and Europe than in her own

homeland.  Since her death on July 13, 1954, she has become equally famous in Mexico.

-Despite living with chronic pain Kahlo became a prolific artist, producing over 200 paintings,

primarily self-portraits, that have become iconic representations  of Mexican art.

-Kahlo's work is known for its vivid colors, surrealist imagery, and emotional intensity and it

continues to inspire artists and admirers around the world.

-Kahlo was a Mexican artist who achieved international recognition for her unique and highly

personal style of painting.

-Kahlo's self-portraits, in which she frequently showed her physical and emotional hardships, 

came to be recognized as the essence of her creative endeavors.

-Kahlo's art was deeply influenced by Mexican folk art as well by her own experiences and

struggles, and it often featured surrealist imagery and vivid colors.

-Despite facing numerous challenges throughout her life, including a tumultuous relationship

with artist Diego Rivera, she persevered and created a body of work that continues to be

inspirational.

-Frida was born and died in the same house known as the "Blue House", (1907-1954 Coyoacan, 

 Mexico City).  It has been transformed into the Frida Kahlo Museum allowing visitors to learn

about her life and art.

-Kahlo changed the world through her art by exploring deeply her personal and emotional

issues and usherd a new wave of artists who used art to explore their own experiences. 

-Kahlo was almost instantly enamored with Diego Rivera because of their similiar ideals about

Mexican identity. He also was very encouraging about her artistic talents.

-The painting by Frida Kahlo named "Self-Portrait with Thorn necklace and Hummingbird" 1940

is one of the most famous paintings of the artist.

-The major work depicts the artist from the front, surrounded by a monkey on her right and black cat

on her left.

-Kahlo is wearing a necklace of thorns that pierce her neck and draw a few drops of blood, where a 

dead hummingbird is hanging.

-The artist is dressed in traditional Mexican attire. The painting is in the collection of the Museum of

Fine Arts in Boston.

What does this painting mean?

-Frida wanted to represent the pain she felt after her separation from the painter Diego Rivera.

-The two artists divorced in 1938 and remarried in December 1940

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-This divorce was very difficult for Kahlo, who painted several paintings on the theme of love's tear.

-The hummingbird (dead) represents luck, definitely lost.

-The black cat, a sign of bad luck, tries to catch the bird, to eat it or hurt it further.  While the Monkey

in Christian symbolism is associated with the devil.

-The artist represents her ex-husband, Diego, through the primate that is tying the necklace of thorns

around her neck, in an attitude of indifference to the pain she feels. 

-The Two Fridas 1939 or "Double Self-Portrait" is a painting made in 1939 following her 

separation from her husband Diego Rivera.

-Kahlo lived very badly this separation which plunged her into a profound disarray.

-In this painting Kahlo represents two Fridas who are holding hands, but who do not have

the same attitutde or the same physical appearance.

-One the left, the artist is elegantly dressed in a traditional white dress, similar to a wedding dress.

-She is wearing makeup and is standing up straight.  

-On her chest we can see her heart, exposed out of her body by a tear with two veins visible. The dress 

is stained with blood from a vein.

-On the right, the artist is dressed in a Tehuana, a traditional Mexican dress. Her face is colored

without any make up.

-She adopts a masculine look by her position (legs spread) and with a visible mustache.

-Her heart is intact.  An artery connects the two Fridas, where the one on the left is kept alive by the

one on the right.

-This painting is an attempt to reconnect and reconcile the artist with herself following her breakup. 

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