FRIDA KAHLO

“MODERNIST REPRESENTATIONS: THE STRENGTH OF A WOMAN”.

"I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality." – Frida Kahlo

The 20th-century art or modern art really began with modernism in the late 19th century. Nineteenth-century movements of Post Impressionism and Art Nouveau led to the first twentieth-century art movements and one of the influential modernists in the 20th century is Frida Kahlo. Here is a look at her life as well as the overall significance of her works on arts.

Artist Frida Kahlo was born on July 6, 1907, in Coyocoán, Mexico City, Mexico. Considered one of Mexico's greatest artists, she began painting after she was severely injured in a bus accident. In 1922, Kahlo enrolled at the renowned National Preparatory School. She was one of the few female students to attend the school, and she became known for her jovial spirit and her love of traditional and colorful clothes and jewelry. That same year, famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera went to work on a project at the school. Kahlo often watched as Rivera created a mural called The Creation in the school’s lecture hall. According to some reports, she told a friend that she would someday have Rivera’s baby. Although, Frida married Diego, her dream of having kids never materialized.

Her paintings and works push you to see the other side of art and get a different view of artwork in general.  Her body as a woman is what distinguishes her from a man. Frida is one of the clear representations of the strength of woman particularly during modernism. Instead of letting her infirmities keep her from fulfilling her ambitions as an artist, she used them as fuel for her art and she left a strong impression on Portraiture. Her circumstances, which were not different from that of many other people in her time and now were reflective in her work. Guerrilla Girls notes that, in reference to her marriage to Diego, Frida stated “I was constantly telling our story in my paintings” and she did that till the very end (78). At the beginning of the century, however, women still had less access to artistic training and women were marginalized.

In the early 20th century, Chadwick observes that, “women were presented as powerless and sexually subjugated and then they were “marginalized in the aesthetic and political debate swirling around modern art movement” in that era. So, “many women turned to the female body as the primary subject of a woman’s experience” (282). Frida rose against the norms of the time and so she never portrayed herself or her art as powerless. She addressed issues ranging from struggle, miscarriage, pain, betrayal, divorce and many others, through her works. She was herself. She spoke her mind with her paintings and was not afraid or shy to project her circumstances in life through her art and that made her one of the most outstanding 20th century artists. She inspired a whole new movement in artwork and as a result, her work is said to be a symbol of female struggle and has enlightened a whole movement of female artists. She may be one of the first twentieth century fine artists to paint in detail about childbirth, miscarriages and other women's issues. Her work below was during her divorce from Diego.

                                       The Two Fridas (1939, Oil on canvas)

 

The Two Fridas is believed to be an expression of Frida's feelings at the time of her divorce. This double self-portrait was the first large-scale work painted by Frida. It has to your left unwanted frida and to your right, wanted frida. The linking vein, as well as the clasped hands, suggests that Frida has re-created her imaginary childhood friend in the form of herself.  In her lap, Frida clutches a miniature portrait of Diego. From the egg-shaped frame a long red vein emerges symbolizing an umbilical cord, suggesting that Diego was not only her lover, but her child as well. The small portrait of Diego depicted in The Two Fridas was found among Frida’s possessions after her death; it is now part of the Museo Frida Kahlo’s collection. There is also blood drips onto her crisp white dress, which is a possible reminder of her abortions, miscarriages and many surgeries, as well as the physical pain felt at the loss of Diego. In an attempt to sever all emotional ties with Diego, the surgical pincers held by the unwanted Frida try to staunch this shared blood flow.

There is also a self-portrait of Frida with animals which is shown below.

Self Portrait with Monkeys (1941)

Exotic animals such as parrots, cats, monkeys and deer roamed the rooms and gardens of the Blue House in Coyocoán where Frida was born and where she lived with Diego from 1929-1954. They were Frida’s pets and most made appearances in her art work. In her loneliness and desire for children, Frida may have turned to animals for comfort.

As noted, Frida was never scared to mention the problems in her marriage. She was his chicuita ("little one") and he was her "frog prince," but the path of love was not a smooth one for Frida and Diego. Almost from the moment of their marriage in 1929, there were problems. But 1949 was a particularly low point in their relationship. Rumors circulated that Diego intended to marry the film star Maria Felix, with whom he was having an affair. Although nothing came of the affair and Diego remained with Frida, she was hurt. Frida Kahlo underwent more than thirty operations in the course of her life, and most of her paintings relate to her experiences with physical and psychological suffering. They also chronicle her turbulent relationship with Diego Rivera, Mexico’s most famous painter, whom Kahlo met in 1928 and married in 1929. Rivera was frequently unfaithful to her, even starting an affair with her sister, Cristina. Kahlo retaliated with her own affairs. Eventually they divorced in 1939 but remarried a year later, only to resume hostilities where they left off. Kahlo is quoted as saying about the relationship, "there have been two great accidents in my life. One was the trolley, and the other was Diego. Diego was by far the worst" thus it was observed that Frida’s husband, Diego, was a bully, womanizer and betrayed Frida’s trust.

Diego and I (1949)

Frida’s admiration for Diego’s wisdom and intellect is suggested by the inclusion of the third eye on Diego’s forhead. Diego’s third eye suggests Frida’s belief that her husband was mentally and artistically her superior. For years she joked and laughed about Diego’s indiscretions but Frida’s tears in this portrait show pain and suffering. Here, her hair which in most portraits is usually elegantly pinned up, is loose and wraps around her neck, suggesting that she is strangling. Without Diego, her very breadth is taken away.

"The Accident"

The Accident, 1926, Pencil on paper, 7.8" x 10.6", Collection of Juan Coronel, Cuernavaca, Mexico.

On Sept. 17, 1925, Frida suffered an accident that would change her life. One year later, she sketched “The Accident”, in the style of traditional Mexican ex-voto paintings. The moment of the impact is depicted. An out-of control tram has smashed the bus that Frida was on. Several people were killed as is noted in the sketch by the crushed bodies beneath the tram’s wheels. Frida survived but was seriously injured and she suffered great pain the rest of her life. Her artwork grew out of the need to explore and cope with the pain she experienced. Frida is portrayed in a plaster cast on a stretcher. Frida would wear several plaster cast in her lifetime due to the accident.As religious works of art, ex-voto paintings, usually executed on tin sheets, portray scenes of miraculous heavenly interventions. The miracle in this sketch is that Frida did not die. Another signature of the ex-voto style is that events are described both in pictures and words. Most of Frida's paintings would incorporate elements of the ex-voto style.

‘The Broken Column’ (1944)

‘The Broken Column’ (1944) is a metaphor for Kahlo’s own pain. Her spine is represented by a shattered stone column. This is visible through her broken body which is only held together by a harness. She is naked and the surface of her flesh is punctured by sharp nails, recalling the painful effect of flogging on the body of Christ in Matthias Grünewald’s Crucifixion Panel from the Isenheim Altarpiece. Silent tears drop from her eyes as she stands alone in a desolate wasteland without any sign of hope on the horizon. This is a bleak self image but Kahlo’s endurance heroically prevails in this barren landscape of despair

"The Message of Pain"

'Self Portrait with the Portrait of Doctor Farill', 1951 (oil on board)

In the 1950’s, Kahlo’s health seriously declined and the technical quality of her work suffered. Several spinal operations left her crippled with pain and she was confined to a wheelchair. 'Self-Portrait with the Portrait of Dr. Farill' (1951) is typical of this final period of her work. This double portrait, where Kahlo sits in her wheelchair holding her brushes and palette adjacent to her painting of her surgeon Dr. Farill, is a statement about the nature of her art. "My painting carries with it the message of pain ... Painting completed my life." A section of her heart replaces the palette on her lap, while her paintbrushes drip with blood, leaving the viewer in no doubt about their importance to her existence.

In the summer of 1954, Frida Kahlo died from pneumonia in the house where she was born. During her lifetime, she did not enjoy the same level of recognition as her husband, Diego Rivera, but today, her explicit, intensely autobiographical work is as critically acclaimed as that of her male peers.

Chadwick, Whitney, Women, Art and Society.New York, NY:Thames and Hudson, 1990 Print

The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. New York: Penguin, 1998. Print

http://artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/portraits/frida_kahlo.htm

http://www.pbs.org/weta/fridakahlo/worksofart/monkey.html