The Two Fridas

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.

Frida Kahlo’s “The Two Fridas” is a manifestation of heartbreak, inner human pain, rejection of colonialism, and emotional journey. An oil on canvas made in 1939 in the midst of Frida Kahlo’s divorce from Diego Rivera, this painting embodied Frida Kahlo’s progression at this time in her life, dealing with what she is and what she wishes to be; as well as setting out how she wishes to do it. An ode to melancholy and overcoming adversity, “The Two Fridas” is a universal, eternal reminder of human capability.

After the accident, Kahlo was left with three month recovery of the injuries. She started to paint since after the accident and painted to occupy her time during her temporary of stopping. Frida Kahlo said “I paint myself because I am often alone and I am the subject I know the best”. Kahlo draws her personal experiences as her marriage, her miscarriage and her numerous operations appear in her life with pain.

It can be argued that Frida Kahlo is a painter that challenged the ideas pertaining to gender, race, and sexuality. She is known for questioning the essence of these identities. Kahlo famously painted depictions which show her questioning and exploring her own identity. When looking at her whole body of work, it is apparent that Kahlo was interested in gender and racial constructs. Frida Kahlo’s painting, Diego and Frida, 1929-1944 is one visual example of how Frida Kahlo was an artist that challenged ideas surrounding gender, race, and sexuality. This painting can be seen through the lens of deconstruction to offer a deeper insight into its meaning. Vernon Minor and Jacques Derrida are art theorists that have also speculated about deconstruction. These two both made an argument that deconstruction is made stronger when direct opposites are used.

In Frida Kahlo’s artwork “The Broken Column 1944”, it exhibits an example of a private life experience painting. In this painting Frida articulates her grief and misery in the most honest and disturbing way. She has a series of nails entrenched within her skin. With Kahlo facing front, there is a missing piece leading from her neck down to her stomach. Behind the missing section there is an interpretation of her spinal cord. In this painting, Frida is positioned in the earth with dark valleys. The Broken Column in itself along with Kahlo’s background gives the audience a sense of what kind of pain she has experienced. The sophistication of this painting is very distinguishing. She arranged each stroke firmly to build a simple and clear image of what pain she was going

These two women of surrealism and Freud’s era have some paintings that grasp my attention. One in particular by the great Frida Kahlo. The Broken Column represents the pain and suffering that Frida went through in her life and not just that but it’s representation of the thing all women go through which is some sort of pain and hurt in their lifetime. In this painting the nails are stuck into her face and whole body. A split in her torso which looks like an earthquake fissure. In the background is the earth with dark ravines. At the beginning she painted herself nude but later covered her lower part up with something looks like a hospital sheet. A broken column is put in place of her spine. The column appears to be on the verge of collapsing into rubble. Penetrating from loins to chin, the column looks phallic, and the sexual connotation is all the more obvious because of the beauty of Frida's breasts and torso. Although her whole body is supported by the corset, she is conveying a message of spiritual triumph. She has tears on her face but she looks straight ahead stating that she’s going to face the challenges that life has thrown at her.

4. Frida Kahlo essentially became an international cultural icon, honored by many people, especially in Mexico. Her artwork withholds visual symbolism of all kinds of emotional and physical pain and most importantly she incorporated indigenous culture and her depiction of the female experience. Including illustrating the feelings of death, loneliness, pain, including the pain of miscarriages, failed marriage, and the aftermath of tragic accidents. Through her imagery, she was able to portray her life experiences. She would include specific elements that symbolized something greater. Throughout the process of analyzing all different aspects of Frida Kahlo’s paintings, it provided a deeper understanding to each painting.

The work of Frida Kahlo often labeled and defined as feminist art continues to describe and establish what feminist art is. Wife of the well known and highly regarded Diego Rivera, Frida struggled to become an artist in her own right. Her extremely passionate love for and devotion to her husband manifested itself in an unusual manner in their already unconventional and unique marriage. However it is partly this obsession with Diego that helped motivate her own success as a feminist artist. Her passionate political and revolutionary spirit resonates in the subjects of her paintings as she herself states, "I want my work to be a contribution to the struggle of the people for peace and liberty." (Herrera p.263). She confronts her pain

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 a famous Mexican artist whose life was filled with physical and emotional pain, yet her enthusiasm for art kept her alive which can be seen through the quote “I am not sick, I am broken. But I am happy as long as I can paint” (Brown, nd). Her work can be described as hard as steel, fine as a butterfly wing, lovable as a smile and cruel as the bitterness of life (Frida,2002). All her work was inspired by the nature around her and the exquisite artifacts of Mexico which is apparent in her use of dramatic symbolism and bright use of colors (Li, and Yoneta,2018). One of the most eye catching painting after her terrible bus accident is the self-portrait which was dedicated to Dr Eloesser and was done when she was half paralysed and painted herself from her position in bed, using a mirror and a wooden structure to hold her canvas.

On first impression, The Two Fridas(1939) by Frida Kahlo, is an image that appears grim and sad, with a gloomy atmosphere, set by the background, and a gruesome imagery seen through the open, bloody hearts. The double self-portrait is an oil and canvas image of a European and Mexican Frida. The European Frida’s dress is covered in blood from a cut heart vein, and both the women’s hearts are exposed, with European Frida’s appearing broken. The two figures are sat in the foreground of the image, with a woven bench beneath them and a stormy, grey sky as the background. The image doesn 't have a very distinct appearance of being three dimensional, through its lack of depth. Though the figures still appear closer to the audience then then other

Frida Kahlo is an extremely well know painter, not only in Hispanic culture but also worldwide. She he best know for her very popular self-portraits, but there is much more to learn somewhat less visited, unique surrealism pieces of work. Kahlo was born in Mexico in 1907. She grew up along side The Mexican Revolution, which started in 1910. Aside from this, she suffered a number of other grievances by the time she reached 18 years old that would affect the rest of her life. When she was young she contracted polio, then later was in a brutal car accident that left her with extended injuries that lasted the rest of her life and resulted in her to not be able to have children. This life-altering incident became the subject of many of her paintings. When looking at the tree paintings “Self-Portrait with Monkey” (1938), “The Two Fridas” (1939) and “The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Me, and Senor Xolotl” (1949), it is easy to feel the impact of her work.

From the first glance at the painting, the first thing I observe are the two distinct shades utilized in this painting, under the joyless sky the moon and the sun divided the background into two parts of dark and light. We can observe two Frida’s in this painting. One is laid down on a hospital cot or wheel bed with wounds on her back while the other is sitting on the wooden chair. In her another hand she was holding a flag which has words from a song ""Cielito Lindo" - "Tree of Hope, keep firm." This painting provides us a brief insight of the life of Frida and her struggles also. This painting is interesting since it possess both of her emotions and expressions in it.

Frida's artwork has always interested me in many ways. Her paintings are so much more than self-portraits and surrealism. She illustrates her life and the struggles she goes through, even if most would like to ignore the darker aspects of life. The theme of suffering permeates Frida’s self-portraits and often explicitly comprises their subject matter. She visually depicts physical and psychological struggles through the distortions of her body, which is fragmented, doubled, turned inside-out, and merged with non-human elements. She shows me that I can be strong through life even when I'm hurting physically and emotionally. Frida challenged herself and her

Her mother was a devout Catholic and passed these strong values down to her daughter, Frida. This can be seen through the crown of thorns around her neck rather than her head, showing herself as a Christian Martyr. The subtle blood that is trickling down her neck may represent that of her ongoing pain through her divorce. The contrasting butterflies on her headdress and bright background of leaves are suggestive of resurrection. Over the left-hand side, a monkey can be seen distracted playing with its hands. It was also a gift from Diego and a symbol of the devil she feels he is. As seen on her left-hand side a Black Cat can be noticed staring down the Hummingbird. Perhaps it is ready to feast on the good as it is a symbol of bad luck. She had experienced great trauma and pain in her life and this could be seen as the bad luck symbolised through the cat. To leave a blank background would be unlike Kahlo; the bright and varied shades of greens and yellows seem to show a wall of uncontrolled nature, possibly expressing her feelings at the time. Looking to the upper half of the painting Dragonflies and Butterflies fly around her hair that is intertwined with cloth, delineating a figure eight like crown filled with purples and maroon. We see the life filled Dragonflies and Butterflies