Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo was an eminent artist in 20th century. Many people thought of her as a feminist although they were still controversial about it since she exposed angular exceptional thoughts ahead of her time. She was born on July 6, 1907 in Mexico City where she also died on July 13, 1954. From the age of six Frida suffered poliomyelitis and at the age of eighteen she was involved in a bus accident which resulted to several injuries that caused serious constant pain and infertility in her life.
Frida Kahlo Art work was revealed during the Overwhelming and Realist Autobiographical movie “Friday” released in October 2002, directed by Julie Tomato. It was a realistic portrait of the Mexican painter Friday Kohl’s life as well as her bitterness she passed through in marriage life with her husband Diego Riviera as well as political believes (Kettenmann & Andrea 45). Due to the pain she passed through in the marriage life her artwork motives basically resulted to be in self-portraits. Her personality in the artwork projected to be passionate, liberal, strong, a charming woman and independent.
Nevertheless, her strength made her replace her long time agony with art. Her mom gave her a mirror to see herself while she was in bed for recovery. Therefore, Frida Kahlo’s sensibility and pain can be felt through her paintings. For instance, one of her paintings portraits “The Broken Columns” (figure 1) shows her dressed in a metal corset (Zavala 78). The portrait painting demonstrated a surrealistic way since it brought her being naked and her body full of mails. Through the crying in the picture one might imagine the level of pain of which it is only her who would tell its cause.
With this in mind we can testify to the fact that Frida Kahlo’s art was carefully snarled to the difficulties and the challenges from her health and marriage life. This shows that their marriage relationship with Diego Rivera was rocky and unconventional since they both lacked fidelity. It is believed that Kahlo reacted in a vengeance manner since Diego was a well-known womanizer. Due to this struggle there were a lot of battles that occurred when the two married. Her art work was recognized as her special talent. She was more moved by drawing her own self-portraits.
The issues of her health took place in the theme of art work while her husband as well carried a common part of the theme. Due to this reasons Frida was able to depict her life struggles and physical pain with graphic drawings of self-portraits. With this fact Frida always captured attention of the viewer in passing the message by locating a story influence straight through her self-portrait (Zavala 65). For example in the course of bus crash a metal pole pierced her torso exiting over her vagina in which the course broke her pelvis. This experience left her with a very painful struggle after wards. Through her portrait paintings, she demonstrated the incident and her physical being by painting “The Broken Column” (figure 1) portrait which shown her unclothed chest baring pins through the body with and open torso to express a split pillar. In the portrait the broken column of her spine was represented by the cracked pillar. Due to this incident she was shocked when the doctors told her that she might never carry pregnancy for a full term. Inappropriately, she painted Henry Ford Hospital (figure 2) after she experienced one of her miscarriages. The painting depicted a nude Kahlo lying on a bloody hospital bed. The painting was so scary which many funs of her art work would cry after seeing it, it shown her crying with pelvis and baby images. Several surgeries didn’t clear hence she couldn’t bear children. This called her to paint the “Tree of Hope” (figure 3) after losing faith in medicine. The portrait assumed her lying bleeding on a gurney and cut up as another Kahlo holds a back brace in wearing a traditional dress. The portraits demonstrated the process of the pain she experienced.
Conclusion
Frida Kahlo’s art work involved fear to the viewers as they express a real life of a woman passing through life challenges and pain not only through health status but also marriage. In conclusion we can depict that her nakedness and blood can be felt strongly by the viewers. Her art work demands for an extra feel and a direct stare from the viewer. Through her portrait paintings Frida become recognized all over the world for the unique artwork.
fig 1.fig 2. fig 3.
Work cited
Kettenmann, Andrea. Frida Kahlo, 1907-1954: Pain and Passion. Benedikt Taschen, 2003. Print.
Zavala, Adriana. Becoming Modern, Becoming Tradition: Women, Gender, and Representation in Mexican Art. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State UP, 2010. Print.
Figure 1. The Broken Column. Retrieved from: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the- broken-column/EgGMbMFBQrAe3Q
Figure 2. Henry Ford Hospital Retrieved from: https://www.fridakahlo.org/images/paintings/henry-ford-hospital.jpg
Figure 3. Tree of Hope. Retrieved from: https://www.fridakahlo.org/tree-of-hope.jsp
