Essay on Frida Kahlo's Definition of Self

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

There is ongoing speculation that Frida Kahlo would have never came to be as well known if it wasn’t for the marriage to another Famous Mexican painter Diego Rivera. Although both had different styles of painting, Frida Kahlo was being rediscovered by many particular women because a lot of herself inflicting paintings connected to a big audience of feminists. After living under the shadow of her husband she was becoming even more famous than Diego Rivera. Frida Kahlo experienced a lot of adversity throughout her entire life. Many of the events she experienced reflected all of her art work. In order to understand who Frida Kahlo was, it is important to understand first, about her accidents , second, her relationship with Diego, Lastly, her Art

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

Kahlo was an important figure of her time; she opened barriers for women in the art world, as well as with women who felt like they had to conform to society’s gender roles. It is amazing how Frida continues to impact generations, and will continue to do

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 self-portraits have been described as being surreal, but Frida answered such comments with, "They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn’t. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.”

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.

To have to change and adapt to new lifestyles is a very difficult task which is why many immigrants would favor their own cultures. This can be shown in Frida Kahlo’s Self Portrait Along the Boarder Line Between Mexico and the United States. In this painting, it shows the United States as dark and vacant of life while Mexico is filled with flowers and sunlight. Within the painting is Frida Kahlo holding a Mexican flag representing her loyalty to her native country. The painting also shows Frida standing on the border of Mexico and America.

The painting portrays Two Fridas self-portraits of two different personalities, this was painted after her divorce from her husband Diego Rivera as she deeply loved her him but was betrayed. The artwork is one of Kahlo’s biggest artwork, which is subjected with double self-portrait of Two Fridas, with the size of 173.5 x 173 cm. The main objects in the artwork that catches it’s viewers eyes are the double self-portrait of Frida with the Tehuana (Mexican) and the European dress. The self- portrait and the two hearts on each self-portrait of Kahlo are

Frida’s rise to success was defined by the challenges she endured over time. She had this sense of durability, strength and resilience. She can be rude and bold and also smoke and drink like the men. . At first Frida”s painted what she felt, but it wasn’t to show anyone or sell any paintings. . Every tragedy that affected her she would paint it and express it. In my opinion her rise began once she witness her husband having and affair with her sister. it hurt her so much inside the only way to let it go and let it out was she had to paint it. After that, she went on her own and began painting her pain. Through out her life she endured many hardships that hurt her internally. This shifted her point of view

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

Since Frida spent most of her time in hospital beds, she used that time to create paintings that documented the major events in her life. In 1937, Kahlo created My Nurse and I, in this painting, a nurse with a mask covering her face has in arms a baby with an adult face of Frida. The backstory of this painting is that Frida’s mother due to complications couldn’t breastfeed her. Her family hired a nurse to breastfeed her. This eventually affected their relationship because she never felt a bond with her mother. There are no connections between her and the wet nurse, you can tell the distance between them, there is no love in this painting. It implies Frida’s feelings of loss and separation form her own mother. In 1940, Frida painted Self Portrait with Thorn

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.