Frida Kahlo The Broken Column Analysis

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 one of the most fascinating visual artists of the nineteenth century. Her art and life were filled with pain that was both emotional and physical which she expressed through her paintings. Frida was her art. Frida did not conform to most cultural norms or gender roles in her life time, she was a free spirit trapped in an invalid body. While she did not assume very much acclaim during her lifetime she did manage to be very well traveled even though she was born and died in the same home. She eventually developed a cult-like following in the nineteen-eighties and nineties. She has become a poster girl for modern feminism and a political force of her own time, through all of her physical pain and heartache she was able to

Art is not always pleasant, but neither is society. Art and society have a reflective relationship with one another. During social, religious, and political controversy, artists such as Frida Kahlo incorporated imagery into their portraits of society which are often disturbing to the viewer. The role of an artist often includes acting as a social critic, to show us aspects of our cultural landscape that are unpleasant. In this manner, the art acts as a commentary on the negative aspects of Western civilisation. During the thirties and forties, Kahlo incorporated the hidden realities of economic and social depression into her works.

In contrast with most of Frida’s other paintings, this one actually depicts a few actual aspects. The skeleton, for example, is something Frida truly had on top of her bed; It did not have fireworks attached to it, but rather it was just a life-sized paper mache skeleton named “Juda”. Frida often referred to it as an “amusing reminder of mortality” and she used it for the same reason in this painting. Like previously stated, the skeleton lacks fireworks in real life. Frida actually puts them in to symbolize the suddenness of death and to emphasize her death was to be celebrated. The vines that envelop her body are painted to represent not only life, but also rebirth. The woman in the bed is, in fact, Frida and she looked sickly because, at the time this painting was made, Frida was close to death. Frida, however, does not look sad or mournful, but instead, she looks simply content. The colors used in this painting are bright and happy, something Frida wanted to use to depict a happy and celebratory mood. Lastly, the bed appears to be floating in the sky, levitating towards heaven and also showing the expansiveness of life and death, much like the sky is. The author of the article titled Feel My Pain, Natasha Walters (2005), had this to say about how to interpret Frida’s themes, “If we want to read the art as the story of a woman, we have to be aware that we will never

Frida Kahlo once said“At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.” There is no better person to say this than Kahlo, whose life was filled with pain and sadness. She was one of the most influential artists of her time, especially in the Mexican community.. The most important aspects of her life were her multicultural background, her tragic accident she survived as a teen, her relationship with Diego Rivera, her death, and her face as a product.

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.

It showed her distaste of the United States in its industrial period which seemed very dirty and dull with the beauty of her beloved homeland with its vibrant colors and Aztec ruins. Another great painting she did was called “My Dress Hangs Here”. This painting, done during the Great Depression, also showed how unhappy Frida was in New York City. The dress alone without Frida in it shows of the way she felt wasn’t there and didn’t belong. It also shows how she saw America in its industrialism with all the big factory buildings and the trash can filled with over flowing trash. Frida did not like the fact that she and other famous people were still having parties and hanging out like nothing was happening. This made her long for her Mexico even more.

Tragedy, a crippling experience many people endure in life, yet some give up and the courageous few fight back. Frida Kahlo exemplifies the strength required to express oneself openly and boldly, sharing her painful life through paintings. Kahlo is one of the most famous female painters from Mexico and is known for her mutilating, heartbreaking and courageous self-portraits of her life. Through her various paintings and self portraits, she has created a journal and self-biography of her life that will give her immortality and inspire future generations of artists. Frida Kahlo has become an icon of female creativity from her emotionally charged paintings of her life, unfortunate tragedies and battle of survival. Kahlo was never a woman of conventional ways. She was bold with her art and views of politics as well as being eccentric from what was expected of a female in Mexico.

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.

Frida Kahlo's influence still lingers around the world. Even with Frida dead for almost two decades, she is still celebrated and thought of as an idol. Frida Kahlo was an artist in many different ways. Besides Frida's incredible talent to paint surrealist thoughts and emotions on canvas, she also was and artist in her mind and body. Frida's attire of traditional Mexican clothing, which consisted of long, colorful dresses and exotic jewelry, and her thick connection eyebrows, became her trademark. To the public, Frida Kahlo appeared to be full of spirit and joy. She walked through life happily, with a smile glued to her face. However, her feelings of anguish, anger, unhappiness of her painful miscarriages, and

Frida Kahlo is a world-renowned Mexican painter known for her shocking self-portaits filled with painful imagery. Her artwork was seen by many as surrealist and socialist, but she refused the labels put on herself. Until today, her works have been able to exude the same playful and wild feel as before (Fisher n.p). Her legacy as a painter has attracted prominent people like Madonna who has confessed her admiration for the painter. Not only that but fashion designers are frequently inspired by her iconic Tijuana dresses while her paintings have been priced at more than three million dollars (Bauer 115).

Frida was a very skilled painter who did mainly self-portraits where she expressed her feelings and portrayed herself in unconventional ways. Frida would take some of the events of her life and paint them. For example, Frida painted the auto accident she was in that left her with traumatizing pain, the miscarriages she suffered as a result of the accident, the heartbreak she

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.

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.