Frida Kahlo's Artwork - Essay Example

Frida Kahlo Although she had tremendous difficulty gaining recognition for her work when she was alive, Frida Kahlo is now among the more recognized female Surrealist artists from the mid-1900s. Her life was profoundly touched by misfortune beginning when she contracted polio as a small child. Her physicians were certain she’d never walk again but she fought against this prediction and eventually was able to walk again. Kahlo’s introduction to the art world was thus initiated by her mother, who presented her with her first art set and assisted in having a mirror installed in the canopy above Kahlo’s bed so she could practice self-portraits (Beck, 2006), which was to become one of her major subjects. Just as she was regaining her life, though, she was struck by a trolley car and again predicted never to walk again. Again, she defied the odds (Beck, 2006). Although she was able to overcome the largest of her handicaps, Kahlo suffered with pain from this accident throughout the rest of her life and had to have many surgeries that would confine her to bed or leave her buckled into a ceramic cast. Ever the one to overcome hardships, though, Kahlo turned to art as one of the few things she could do from her bed. Perhaps because of these difficult challenges she was constantly forced to overcome, Kahlo was quite willing to experiment with artistic forms. Her marriage to Diego Rivera, who felt her art was the best in Mexico, facilitated an easy acceptance of her brilliance within international artistic circles, but has only recently come to the attention of the greater general public. Comparing some of her self-portraits, such as “The Two Fridas” and “The Broken Column” illustrates some of the ways in which Kahlo broke out of the traditional forms. Frida Kahlo is different from any other painters. As she said, “I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best,” by which she means any paintings that she made were part of her life. The imagery and style Kahlo developed through her work betrays a lifelong struggle to find balance, not only on the surface of her paintings, but within her own being as well. Whether she was attempting to incorporate the past into the present or find equilibrium between her conception of herself and what society expected of her, her paintings seem unable to bridge the division. This is particularly evident in her painting “The Two Fridas” (1939). The painting, depicting two distinct Fridas side by side, refers back to her childhood while she was still recovering from polio. “During that time, she created an imaginary friend who would later be reflected in a painting called ‘The Two Fridas.’ Explaining the painting in her diary she wrote, ‘I experienced intensely an imaginary friendship with a little girl more or less the same age as me … I followed her in all her movements and while she danced, I told her my secret problems” (Beck, 2006). This split identification created in childhood is resurrected when Kahlo found it difficult to express her emotions during that time in her life while she was going through her divorce from Diego and provides her with an intensely personal means of expression. As can be seen in the above image, one Frida is dressed in European clothing, indicating that this is the actual European half of Frida gained from her father as well as the portion of her that Diego does not love (Stechler, 2005). The torn bodice reveals a broken heart dead inside her chest because of Diego’s rejection of her. At the same time, her hand holds the surgical instrument needed to prevent more blood from spilling out of a severed connection she once shared with her other half. Symbolizing the pain she’s experienced as a result of this experience, blood drips down the front of her dress. Making a strong contrast, the other Frida has found freedom, success and happiness in her status. She is wearing her traditional Indian clothing and experiences a sense of strength. This is shown in the power of a whole heart seen as if in full-color x-ray straight through the untorn fabric of her bodice. This Frida holds a tiny picture of Diego in her hand which is intended to suggest that the two of them will never been fully separated. At the same time, the vein that pulses between the two figures and the strength of their clasped hands reveals that they will never be pulled apart. Therefore, through this strange connection, Diego will never be rid of the European Frida and neither of the Fridas will ever be separated completely from Diego. Beyond these figures, the chaotic background of a stormy sky betrays the depth of the struggle between these two figures. According to Fred Buch (2007), Frida was devastated by the divorce, “she consumed a lot of liquor and her health deteriorated rapidly. She had circulatory and other problems associated with the incidents she had had before.” This provides another interpretation to the vein as well, that the Frida connected to Diego carried the lifeblood for both. Despite the differences, the painting is almost perfectly symmetrical with each Frida sitting just to the side of center and perfectly centered vertically within the frame. Kahlo uses a cool color palette for this image, depicting the sense of desperation and heartache she is feeling. The deep reds used in depicting the hearts suggest old blood, as if these wounds to the heart have been bleeding for a long time. The smooth texture of the Indian Frida’s clothing contrasts strongly with the ruffled, agitated texture of the European Frida, denoting the calmness of the first and the distress of the second. Finally, the chaotic lines of the background reinforce the concept of distress. Kahlo uses more dreamlike images in her painting entitled “The Broken Column” (1944), again as an attempt to purge her pain and suffering. The broken column actually refers to the internal structure of Kahlo’s spinal column as it is seen through torn skin and loosely twined bandages. Like “The Two Fridas”, “The Broken Column” is held together by the most fragile of links. In “The Two Fridas”, this link is a single vein. In “The Broken Column”, it is the external flimsy material of the bandages. This shows how Kahlo’s strength has moved from something internal to something more external. Also like “The Two Fridas”, the painting reveals a great deal of the pain and suffering Frida was experiencing as a result of her previous injuries. “Though still a young woman, she shows herself in three-quarter-length format, with hands extended downward and palms open, in the pose of a traditional Man of Sorrows” (Dorment, 2005), pulling even more upon the folklore and history of her people to imbue the painting with even greater symbolism. The focal point of the image is the broken classical column seen inside the husk of her body where her spinal column should be. The fact that the column is broken symbolizes her lack of support structure and her sense of imbalance while also indicating one of her major sources of pain. “The nails in her body show in a physical way the pain she was enduring, and the tears in Frida’s eyes show that her pain was excruciating. Frida’s face shows both courage, and resignation; Frida’s nudity may suggest that she felt she could do little about her situation” (Buch, 2007). The small pins or nails could also be interpreted to indicate the smaller trivialities of life that Frida must still contend with even as she continues to struggle with holding her fragile body together. These pins trail off down the right side of her body, the side that had been crippled by both polio and the streetcar accident. As Buch suggests, her nakedness in this picture, a departure from many of her other paintings in which she is fully clothed, could be representing her feelings of vulnerability, exposure or the idea that regardless of how she tried, she would never be able to hide the pain she was feeling inside. Emphasizing the brokenness of her body, the figure in this painting stands in front of a broken, barren landscape. This is significant when one realizes not only the broken nature of Kahlo’s physical body, but also the barrenness her accidents and illness had brought on her and the emotional pain this caused. Lines representing deep ravines in the earth’s crust suggest the depth of Frida’s separation and relate her body to the body of Mexico, allowing the painting to transcend the self and move into the greater sphere. No longer indicating the pain of separation as well as the pain of her body, this image uses a slightly warmer palette than that seen in “The Two Fridas” with the warmest tone reserved for Frida’s skin. This further seems to emphasize the barrenness of the background, making it pale in comparison to the icon in the center. Through the constructs of Surrealism, Kahlo was able to find an outlet for her pain and suffering even as she created highly symbolic art that differed from her contemporaries. While artists such as Dali and Ernst were working to find means of combining instinctual impressions with conscious thought, Kahlo found a means of focusing upon her inner world, finding ways of depicting her emotions and feelings in concrete, visual world images. Rather than attempting to combine conscious and unconscious thought, she worked to depict emotions and feelings in ways that were unmistakable, undeniable and intensely personal. By replacing body parts with architectural constructs or placing body parts on the outside of her figures, she was able to evoke an intense reaction from her viewers while also conveying her experiences and subsequent suffering. References Beck, Jennifer. (July 12, 2006). “Artist Hero: Frida Kahlo.” Artist Heroes. Buch, Fred. (October 26, 1999). “Frida by Kahlo.” Available February 25, 2008 from Dorment, Richard. (June 8, 2005). “When the Artist is the Canvas.” Telegraph. Kahlo, Frida. (1998). “The Two Fridas.” “The Broken Column.” Frida Kahlo.com. Available Febraury 25, 2008 from < http://www.fridakahlo.com/art.shtml> Stechler, Amy. (2005). “The Two Fridas.” The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo. Public Broadcasting Station. Read More