Frida Kahlo and Her Emotional Art

Frida Kahlo was an interesting woman to say the least. Remembered today as a famous Mexican artist, she spent her whole life expressing herself in ways that seem deviant from the status quo. There are many reasons she chose to live the life she did, but she was also very much a product of her environment. Born in 1907, just before the start of the Mexican Revolution, and using this event as a corollary for her life, she embarked on a journey that would leave a surrealistic impact for generations to come.

            Frida could have lived a more normal life if she so choose to, but some people are destined to be different. She was raised by an atheist European father and a Catholic native mother and had a life greatly affected by tragedy. As a child she contracted polio, which left one of her legs shorter than the other, and this was later complicated by a severe injury due to a trolley accident that negated any chances she would ever have of having children. She was involved in politics, as a member of the communist party and she was married to a muralist by the name of Diego Rivera, a communist also, who greatly influenced her life and her art. It was evident in her early years that she would not conform to typical societal norms. She flew in the face of tradition by rebelling against typical female roles. At times she dressed in men’s suits for photos, and had relationships with women.  It was her life with Diego, her political leanings, and her marriage that really shaped who she was in her later years. She was also plagued throughout her life with many surgeries and several miscarriages, which she expressed in many of her paintings in very great morbid detail.

            Frida’s paintings were a visual journal into her soul. Instead of painting neutral landscapes and people, all of her paintings carried a meaning beyond just the subject. They all told a story about a particular time in her life, or of a certain event, and the accompanying emotions. The paintings covered many aspects in their composition: Her love and frustration for her husband, Diego, her origins, political overtones, tragedies she suffered, and morbid representations of herself from her surgeries and suffering.

            Frida was not afraid to express her Ideas as she saw them in her head. She once said “"I paint my own reality. The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration." (2) It was this concept that drove every painting that she made. It is also this mindset that propelled her into recognition. It is what set her apart from the other artists of the period.

This no restraints theme is really exemplified in a lot of her paintings. One of her paintings, her family tree picture titled “My Grandparents, My Parents, and I.” The picture depicts a surrealist timeline of how she came to be. It clearly shows her grandparents descent. The native grandparents depicted on the left and the European ancestry on the right with her parents in the middle. It is set over a Mexican landscape with the typical buildings, arid landscape with cacti, and rugged terrain. It is also another timeline within a timeline of herself. It shows her fertilization, her mother carrying her embryo, and a young naked depiction of herself. It tells the story of the reality of how she came to be and her ties to the land where she was born. This picture is also a good representation of the fact that many of her paintings told a story about Frida.

            She expressed, in several paintings, her love for her home. In one painting titled “Self Portrait on the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States.” She shows a story about her dislike for America, and her love of home. On one side of the painting, her home country is depicted. The skies are clear, and the sun is shining next to the moon. Exotic plants, and Mexican sculpting are strewn across the landscape. On the other side America is depicted with factories and clutter. Windowless buildings rise into the sky with smoke billowing out of chimneys around a representation of the American flag. It shows a stark contrast between where she is and where she came from. The technology and expanse of manufacturing are shown as a negative aspect when compared to her home where her roots were.

            Her paintings weren’t limited to her attachment to place or family, and they were not all neutral. Many of her paintings explored her pain. Pain with her marriage was one recurring topic. The marriage between herself and Diego was rocky to say the least. Many times he was referenced in his marriage was because he was being unfaithful to Frida. It is important to note that it wasn’t just Diego that was unfaithful. There were numerous occasions that Frida had extra marital affairs. One painting titled “Diego and I” clearly symbolized her pain. It depicts Frida in anguish. “Frida painted this self-portrait during the period when her husband, Diego Rivera, was having a notorious affair with the film star Maria Felix, a relationship which provoked a public scandal. The beautiful film star was also an intimate friend of Frida's as well.” (3) The symbolism of the painting relates the pain that she felt, and that she couldn’t get Diego off her mind. This was actually in opposition to what she conveyed in public, and highlighted her own inner struggle. Interestingly after their first divorce, they remarried and stayed together for the remainder of Frida’s life.

            Another topic of pain expressed in her art was related to her injury in the trolley accident. Throughout her life she had to have many operations on her back and pelvic area. This had her laid up in the hospital for long periods of time, and gave her a lot of time to think and paint. Her obsession with her failing body was shown in her painting “The Broken Column.” In this picture, she depicts herself torn open and in a strap-like medical devise. It is obvious through the visuals of tears, a broken landscape, and the nails in her body that she is in severe pain. In this picture it was related to her failing back which is depicted as a broken stone column.

            She had many other sources of pain that she also painted. Her lifetime battle with the injury took away any chances she had of bearing children. This didn’t stop her from becoming pregnant on multiple occasions, but every pregnancy ended in tragedy. This was a source of inspiration for some of her most topically graphic paintings that she ever did. Her painting titled “Henry Ford Hospital” depicted the ordeal of the abortion of one of her failed pregnancies. The picture shows Frida laying nude, bleeding, and still swollen from pregnancy on a bed with no blanket for comfort. Attached to, and surrounding her are images of the ordeal. The upper three images are one of her defective uterus, the soon to be dead fetus, and a snail. The lower three images are of medical equipment, a flower blossom, and her pelvic bone. There is an inherent significance to each of these images that shows how fragile and painful her life was.

            Painting wasn’t the only thing that she did to express her emotions. During the later period of her life she also kept a journal where she expressed her deepest feelings. It is also here that true insight can be gained into her obsession with her own death and her thoughts about taking her own life. One popular quote from her journal also delves into the aspect that she knew she wasn’t a normal woman. “I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do. I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me too. Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it's true I'm here, and I'm just as strange as you.” (3)

            Aside from self-expressionism through surrealistic paintings, Frida, along with Diego had an impact on politics. Both of them were firm in their communistic ideals. Throughout their lives they hosted other communists in their home, including famous figures such as Leon Trotsky. An interesting note with this was that this was one man that Frida had an affair with. Both of them didn’t have a smooth relationship with communism though. At one point they both left the party, but they later rejoined.

            Frida Kahlo was one of the most interesting painters of the 20^th century. Through the course of her short life she painted many pictures that speak to people of all ages. The paintings tell the story of her life and her emotional struggles. They show her troubles with her husband, the pain of not being able to have children, her attachment to her land, and many other aspects that made her who she was. If not for her difficult life, it is certain that society would be without her legacy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sources:

1.    "Frida Kahlo - The Mexican Surrealist Artist, Biography and Quotes - The Art History Archive." Frida Kahlo - The Mexican Surrealist Artist, Biography and Quotes - The Art History Archive. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2013.

2.    "Gallery." Frida Kahlo, Paintings, Pinturas, Works, Art, Obras, Self Portrait, Autorretrato, Cuadros, Significado, Meaning. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2013.    

3.    "Frida Kahlo Quotes." Frida Kahlo Quotes (Author of The Diary of Frida Kahlo). N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2013.

4.    Herrera, Hayden. Frida, a Biography of Frida Kahlo. New York: Harper & Row, 1983. Print.