Frida Kahlo Self-Portrait With Monkey Essay

Frida Kahlo was a very talented Mexican artist that revolutionized art at a very young age. Her work is still idolized and celebrated today and is studied by many artists, institutes of higher education, museums, and fans. Kahlo was born in the town of Coyoacan, Mexico on July the sixth in the year of 1907 (Kettenmann 3). She made around 143 paintings, and out of those 143 paintings, 55 were self-portraits that included symbolism of her physical and emotion pain. Furthermore, in her portraits she used symbolism to express her wounds and sexuality. She use to say: “I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality” (Fuentes 41). Her paintings style include of vibrant colors and was heavily influenced

Throughout her career, Frida had shown many different themes of her life through her paintings. It seems clear, through analyzation of her paintings, that Frida lived something of a double life. Frida paints herself in distinctly different ways at times, sometimes she is a beautiful woman with strength like iron, and sometimes she is a frail damsel who has been broken already and will be broken again. Contrasting paintings include Self Portrait with Monkeys (Kahlo, 1) and Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace, Diego and I (Kahlo, 1) and The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Me, Diego, and Mr. Xolotl (Kahlo, 1). All of these paintings show that not only is there a contrast in her personality, in fact, Frida’s is actually two different people, as she paints it.

Frida Kahlo was best known for her reflective self-portraits that defined the tragedies she'd endured. Explaining her affection for the style, Kahlo said, "I paint myself because I am so often alone, because I am the subject I know best.” Kahlo contracted Polio at the age of six which left her with a deformed foot, she was also Bed-bound while recovering from a grisly streetcar accident. Kahlo under went over 30 operations throughout her life; and over the years she painted a portrait of herself whenever she was troubled.

Kahlo carefully considers all elements of her work, including the colours used. This is evident in her choice of symbols to convey a very intricate meaning. In this particular painting the natural elements are heavily integrated into the composition; surrounding Kahlo are vines linking her to nature itself. Kahlo was unable to bear children and her link here to nature, especially with the presence of so many monkeys (a traditional symbol of fertility), may represent her desire to be a part of this aspect of nature. Fertility has a huge presence in this painting as the flower, the white of her shirt, and the lush green vines all symbolise health, fertility and purity, none of which Kahlo herself possessed. Through her symbolism Kahlo created meaning and added emphasis on particular aspects of her life. Critics have likened her tendency to do this to a method of self-creation rather than self-expression. She places herself within a scenario she wishes to be in or a person she recreates herself as, in this painting for example, she would be using her engulfment in fertility symbols as a way of showing herself as fertile. Either way, the painting speaks very strongly of Kahlo's link to motherhood, through the local, Mexican symbols.

Frida Kahlo, she never intended to become a painter. Kahlo was aspired to become a doctor as a young woman, but after a horrible accident at the age of 18, it left her mentally, as well as physically scared for life. This event had totally changed her life forever. The theme in almost all of Frida’s painting was her own life. Her paintings were based on events took place during her lifetime. As we can see in many of Frida’s paintings, especially in her self-portraits, it expresses her own personal emotions along with feelings about an event that happened in her life, such as her physical condition, her lack of ability to conceive children of her own, her ideology of life and nature, and most important of all, it was her unstable relationship with her husband Diego. Somewhere between the movement of surrealism, realism and symbolism in the art of Frida Kahlo, she was able to bring out tenderness, femininity, reality, cruelty and suffering within her paintings.

Painting was the artistic escape route for Kahlo’s mind and body. To occupy her mind after the more than 30 surgeries, she began to paint as part of her recovery process. Fifty-five of her one hundred and forty-three paintings were self-portraits. These paintings were purposely painted in a naïve way to show vulnerability (“A Tribute to Frida Kahlo”). A few of her most famous works include: “Self-Portrait Between Mexico and the United States, 1932”, “My Dress Hangs There, 1933”, and

"The Hybrid Sources of Frida Kahlo," explains what the author thinks Kahlo is trying to communicate with her self-portrait. The author mentions how Kahlo could've been inspired by a French artist. Zarobell says, "It seems odd for an artist from Mexico, whose territory includes tropical jungles, to be generating jungle imagery modeled on that of a modern Parisian" (Zarobell). The author then says that the painting was Kahlo's creation of her world, in this case, her jungle. I agree with Zarobell to a certain point, although Kahlo doesn't paint the jungle behind her as realistic as it could be, it does not distract me from the painting. I agree with Zarobell when he mentions that the painting is the artist's views or thoughts. Kahlo's jungle shows, this since she had seen the tropical jungles, Kahlo does what she wanted with the subject which differs from the realistic image. There are many symbols the painting incorporates which have a deeper meaning that Zarobell does not capture in his review. In "The New Yorker," Peter Schjeldahl, talks about the exhibition at the New York Botanical Garden "Frida Kahlo: Art

They say, “pictures are worth a thousand words” and I believe when it comes to my chosen artist, Frida Kahlo, her portraits could not be a better example of that saying. All of the 200 paintings done by Frida Kahlo say more about her life and what she experienced than any article I have ever read about her. From her health issues and violent bus accident to her tumultuous marriage with her husband, Diego Rivera is all an influence in her paintings.

More than 60 years have passed since the death of Frida Kahlo, a Surrealist Mexican painter. Frida Kahlo’s many talents were overshadowed by her husband’s fame during the course of her life. Yet, it wasn’t until her death and the early 1970’s where Frida’s artistic effort started to surpass that of her political and creative husband. Her biography is both depressive and particularly interesting. Many of her private moments and experiences are shared in her greatest pieces of art. Some of those valuable masterpieces contain her cherished possessions, in addition to them being the things that established her popularity and appreciation among distinct genders, cultures and ages around the world. Knowing this, it was in my interest to devote some quality time and effort to this woman whose life immediately captivated my attention and inspired me to understand and endure life as a woman.

Born the 6th of July in the year of 1907, Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo was raised in a world with emerged with the cultures of German and Mexican. It was with the cultural influence of her heritage and altruistic qualities and values adapted from her parents, that at a very young age had an impact on Frida Kahlo, and a perpetuate influence on her future work and lifestyle. Her father, Guillermo Kahlo born in Pforzheim, Germany, was noted to have inspired her natural admiration and talent in the art of painting as he himself was a renowned professional photographer at the time. From Guillermo Kahlo, Frida singlehandedly learned and implemented her distinguished techniques in her paintings such as the “bizarre imagery along with her linear style [that] was reminiscent of Surrealism” and could compare to the painting style of “Salvador Dali” (Beaver). Kahlo’s relationship with her mother, Matilde Calderon however, impacted her work and lifestyle in a complete distinctive manner in comparison to that of her father’s influence. Despite the aid, care, and creative attention her father granted her, Maltilde withdrew herself from Frida as her caretaker, as she

Frida Kahlo, who was an amazing self-portrait artist, was born during the Mexican revolution. She used her Mexican heritage to paint herself always keeping a tight grasp on her national identity. In order to understand Kahlo and her paintings the historical and political factors that she lived in must be taken in to consideration. Frida’s works of art reflect her life experiences, physical and emotional pain that she felt throughout her lifetime. Frida also utilizes her personal life, health and sometimes even social affairs to relate to her Mexican culture and politics. Kahlo’s paintings are very powerful and relevant to Mexican nationalism and her political views in the social, cultural, and political aspects of Mexico.

Before her life as an artist, Frida Kahlo would suffer traumatic experiences that will lead her to taking her first steps into the world of art. She would experience pain in her childhood that will lead into her early adulthood. As an adult, Frida would then suffer a fatal accident as well as the infidelity of her husband. In addition to the personal issues she endured, she also dealt with the questioning of her national identity. Kahlo’s artistic abilities later led her to create self-portraits which often showed herself suffering. Using her personal tragedies, Frida Kahlo was able to render paintings that resembled pain and suffering.

Frida Kahlo is a celebrated Mexican artist that came from a multi-racial background. Her heritage and other pivotal moments in he life would later be portrayed in many of the fifty-five self-portraits she would paint during her life. Kahlo began painting while in bed recovering from a bus accident that not only left her in a body cast for three months, but with never ending pain throughout her life. Kahlo would begin to pursue the selling and exhibition of artwork. This lead Frida to seek out painter Diego Rivera, hoping that in him she could find a mentor and guide into the art world. They married in 1929 and so began a tumultuous marriage full of infidelities and heartache. Much that happened during their marriage would become subject matter for her painting later deemed part of Surrealism. “Though not an official member of Surrealism, Kahlo's bizarre imagery along with her linear style was reminiscent of Surrealist” paintings, she is often said to be a surrealist painter, through she did not identify with the movement herself. (theartstory.org) After a live of loss, martial owes, and pain, Frida died in 1954, at the age of forty-seven, leaving behind a legacy of painting that spoke volumes concerning her emotion and state of

In 1932, Kahlo added more naturalistic to her painting style. She was always one of the most painfully personal of artists, by making paintings that dealt with her terrible injuries she suffered in a tram crash to her abortion. In her panting Henry Ford Hospital (1932) Frida Kahlo laid on a hospital bed naked and was surrounded with a few things floating around her which included a fetus, flower, pelvis all things connected by veins. This painting was how she expressed herself about her second miscarriage.(Frida Kahlo.org) When she could of sat around and be depressed she decided to paint her grief away. When

More than 60 years have passed since the death of Frida Kahlo, a Surrealist Mexican painter. Frida Kahlo’s many talents were overshadowed by her husband’s fame during the course of her life. Yet, it wasn’t until her death and the early 1970’s where Frida’s artistic effort started to surpass that of her political and creative husband. Her biography is both depressive and particularly interesting. Many of her private moments and experiences are shared in her greatest pieces of art. Some of those valuable masterpieces contain her cherished possessions, in addition to them being the things that established her popularity and appreciation among distinct genders, cultures and ages around the world. Knowing this, it was in my interest to devote some quality time and effort to this woman whose life immediately captivated my attention and inspired me to understand and endure life as a woman.