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Modern Artists

Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter known for her self-portraits dealing with themes of identity, the human body, and death. After a tragic bus accident that injured her, she taught herself to paint during her recovery and abandoned her medical career to become an artist. Her most famous work The Two Fridas depicted her two personalities and the pain of her divorce. Kahlo's paintings often portrayed her chronic pain from the bus accident and injuries.

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Sophia Lantin
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35 views

Modern Artists

Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter known for her self-portraits dealing with themes of identity, the human body, and death. After a tragic bus accident that injured her, she taught herself to paint during her recovery and abandoned her medical career to become an artist. Her most famous work The Two Fridas depicted her two personalities and the pain of her divorce. Kahlo's paintings often portrayed her chronic pain from the bus accident and injuries.

Uploaded by

Sophia Lantin
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Frida Kahlo

Background : Frida Kahlo de Rivera was a Mexican Painter during the modernist period. She
was born on July 6, 1907 in Coyoacan, Mexico City, Mexico. She is best known for her
uncompromising and brilliantly coloured self-portraits that deal with themes such as identity, the
human body, and death.

Originally, Frida was interested and was building her career in the field of medicine. However,
in 1925, Frida was involved in a tragic bus accident, which so seriously injured her that she had
to undergo more than 30 medical operations in her lifetime. During her slow recovery, in the
hospital Frida taught herself to paint, to kill the time and alleviate the pain. She discovered her
passion for painting, and finished her first self-portrait in the following year. Because of her
newfound discovery, she decided to ultimately abandon her career in medicine to become an
artist.

Self Portrait in a Velvet Dress is one of Frida Kahlo's earliest paintings and her first self
portrait, a subject to which she would return on numerous occasions throughout her lifetime. It is
also considered to be her first professional painting and consequently the starting point of her
career as an artist. Kahlo painted a regal waist-length portrait of herself against a dark
background with roiling stylized waves.

It is said that Frida Kahlo created this artwork in order to regain her lover back. She used this
portrait as a token of love to regain her affection from her lover Alejandro Arias. This portrait
implied the emotional tension as well as showing with her other paintings. As you can see, Frida
is wearing a wine-red velvet dress wherein she looked like a princess in it. She sent it to
Alejandro and hoped he would keep her in his mind. Although her plan of getting back his lover
worked, they did not end up together.

Frida’s most famous work is entitled The Two Fridas, completed in 1939. This painting was
completed shortly after her divorce with her husband, Diego Rivera. This portrait shows Frida's
two different personalities. One is the traditional Frida in Tehuana costume, with a broken heart,
sitting next to an independent, modern dressed Frida. Frida wrote about this painting and said it
originated from her memory of an imaginary childhood friend. However, later on she admitted it
expressed her desperation and loneliness with the separation from Diego. Aside from these
reasons, it is also said that it symbolizes Kahlo’s different identities, namely her European and
Mexican identities, evident in the dresses she wears.

Another of Frida’s work that depicts The Broken Column (1944) painting by Frida Kahlo was
painted as a visual image of Kahlo’s chronic pain, which was a result of her spinal surgery from a
fatal car accident she was in when she was 18 years old. Her chronic pain is portrayed by the
nails all over her skin, the tears running down her cheeks, and the Ionic column revealed by the
large area of skin cut open running down her front torso. She appears naked, braces around her
torso appearing like a metal corset to hold her in place.

Not only does this painting depicts her chronic pain, but the damage to her self-confidence
during the traumatic childhood and the pain of Diego Rivera's frequent affairs with other women

Frida Kahlo once said, "I paint myself because I am often alone and I am the subject I know
best". We can see this in her chosen art subject, which is mostly self-portraits of herself.
When Frida Kahlo died, the family home where she was born and grew up, later referred to as
the Blue House or Casa Azul, was opened as a museum in 1958. Located in Coyoacán, Mexico
City, the Museo Frida Kahlo houses artifacts from the artist along with important works. The
Caza Azul is still functional until today and continues to accept visitors from all over the world.

Today, Mexican artist Frida Kahlo is still remembered and revered for her self-portraits, pain and
passion, and bold, vibrant colors that she incorporated into her artworks. She is celebrated in
Mexico for her attention to Mexican and indigenous culture and by feminists for her depiction of
the female experience and form.

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