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. The painting is of two versions of Frida Kahlo, closely gripping hands and sharing one heart between them. They are dressed in contrary clothing, with the Frida on the left dressed in modern European garb, while the other to the right is in traditional Mexican clothing. When viewing the painting, we are immediately attracted to the left Frida, who has nearly all of the light in the painting shining down on her. Her European clothing, popular in Mexico at the time, feels very constricting for both the subject and the viewer,specifically the collar grasping her neck so very tightly. Her upright and fragile stance and her almost limp grasp of the second Frida’s is understandable as we see the gaping hole where her heart should be. The pulsating anatomy of her wound bleeds into the room, while her face is completely indifferent. A single vein connects the hole in left Frida to the heart of right Frida. In left Frida’s unclenched hand, a delicate pair of scissors, indicating that she had wretched the heart out of her own bosom. It is this connection that guides us to the Frida to the right, but not before we notice the background behind them. A gray and cloudy backdrop that seems to embody Kahlo’s emotional state at the time, it is hard to distinguish the right Frida from its murky depths. A shadow presiding all around her, the right Frida is dressed in a traditional Mexican dress, with a posture and facial expression completely identical to the other Frida’s. The most eye-catching feature of hers, however, is the pulsating heart that the left Frida is lacking beating out of her chest. This gruesome and oblivious picture is made only more extraordinary when we make out the object right Frida is
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.
In this essay, I will be discussing how two famous artists from different times and cultures have created aesthetic qualities in artworks, communicated ideas and developed styles. Frida Kahlo and Pablo Picasso have been chosen to express two very different art styles and how both artists use elements and principles to create a distinct quality artwork. Although Frida Kahlo and Pablo Picasso come from different parts of the world and have different cultural backgrounds, both artists have practiced and explored portraiture as a way of making art.
Her symbolic painting is depicting that she refers to Rivera her lover and her child. When Amy Schaefer writes, “The stormy sky in the background, and the artist's bleeding heart - a fundamental symbol of Catholicism and also symbolic of Aztec ritual sacrifice - accentuate Kahlo's personal tribulation and physical pain”(Schaefer). Kahlo began to take more interest in traditional clothings of Mexico. With this portrait, The Two Fridas, Kahlo expresses her loneliness and desperation of her separation from
In the painting of “The Two Fridas” you automatically notice two women sitting down in a bench, holding hands with hearts connected with each other. The background looks as if she was outside since it looks like clouds and the floor is light brown. The first Kahlo has her hair up, has light makeup on, (she is whiter than than second woman, her mustache is shaved, and she put some lipstick.), the dress is white and has two different designs on top (her chest is more vintage while the arms are layer of laces). The middle portion of her dress has blood stains dripping downwards. Then at the very bottom there seems to be flowers like roses and little birds, and the heart she has seems to be damaged with white and black inside. The second Kahlo also has her hair up, now she doesn’t seem to have any type of makeup (she is a bit tanner than the first woman and she actually has mustache) she has a more natural look, the dress she is wearing has color to it, the top of the dress is blue with some yellow around the neck, arms, and in the lower stomach area then on the bottom of the dress it is brown but the very bottom is simple with no flowers, it is white with frills, and the heart she has looks more of a realistic. For the first Kahlo the blood vessels are going around her arm, up her shoulder, and around her neck going towards the second Frida heart. Once the blood vessels reaches
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.
Frida Kahlo was an amazing woman whose many tragedies influenced her to put her stories into her paintings. She was born in July 6th 1907 to a Mexican Roman Catholic mother who was of Indian and Spanish decent and a German photographer father. Frida had three sisters, Mitilde and Adriana, who were older and Christina who was younger. She learned about Mexican history, art and architecture by looking at her father’s photography. When Frida was six she got polio and it was a long time before she would heal completely. After surviving polio, Frida’s right leg became weak and thin, so her father encouraged her to play sports to help her.
Frida came to Diego one day and asked him to see her painting and upon him noticing her talent he would stay close to her. Frida never having anyone support or be there for her fell madly in love with Diego Rivera, a known painter for his work during the Mexican mural movement. Despite her parents disapproval the two would get married and live together for a long time. Frida before finding out about his secrete affaires, would paint portraits such as " Diego on my Mind" which when analyzing one can see how obsess she had become for her lover Diego. In this particular portrait Frida is wearing the traditional Tehuana costume that Diego greatly admired and loved, while wearing leaves as a crown and Diego's head of her forehead. She wore the Tehuana costume to entice Diego closer to her and when paying close attention one can see that the roots of the leaves make a sort of spider-web in which one can only assume she will catch and hold her lover in. There is no doubt that Frida was obsess with Diego and nothing would take him out of her mind, not even when he was known as a
Reading Mimi Y. Yang’s “Articulate Image, Painted Diary: Frida Kahlo's Autobiographical Interface, " I was particularly impressed with the amount of struggle Frida lived with daily and how she chose to overcome to express her pain through her paintings, and her loneliness through her diaries (Yang, 314). It’s truly remarkable how beautiful Frida’s paintings are, and how much her suffering comes through in works such as The Broken Column and The Two Fridas. I know if I were in as much pain, both physically and emotionally, as Frida, I would most likely stay in bed all day, never mind have the strength to express my personal inner emotions through confessional mediums. Additionally, Frida’s free expression taught me to embrace who I am, both the negative and positive aspects, as she did. Frida never seemed to give into society’s expectations of a female, and continuously pushed boundaries with her confessional art, an aspect of Frida I believe all individuals should
One of her paintings, The Two Frida’s, shows us two Kahlo’s and how one person can feel and look like two totally different people after an emotional experience, in this case the divorcement of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. In the painting of “The Two Fridas” you automatically notice two women sitting
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).
The broken column, Frida self portraits her with an open torso and an ionic column representing her spine. Broken in several areas, she makes a clear reference to the consequences of her accident in the bus. The white harness in the paintings represents the iron corset she had to wear in 1944 to hold her spine. This corset gives us the impression that it seems the only thing that holds Frida’s body together from complete disintegration. We also can see her body nailed, expression of continuous pain; and, at the same time, real in Frida’s life. However, the biggest nail is stuck in Frida’s heart and this is interpreted as a product of her relationship with Rivera. This painting Frida looks pretty and strong. Although her whole body is supported by the corset, she is conveying a message of spiritual triumph. She has tears on her face but she is looking straight ahead and is challenging both herself and her audience to face her
Frida Kahlo’s “Roots” is a conceptual art piece, using Surrealist art elements to represent the idea that in life and death, everything is connected. The painting depicts a young Frida, laying sideways in the middle of a vast desert. From an opening in her stomach, vines grow and reach into the desert earth. Frida’s blood flows through the vines into the earth, as if to feed the dead ground. The content of this piece shows every aspect of life: birth, life, and death are all clearly represented in the piece.
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.
On first impression, The Two Fridas(1939) by Frida Kahlo, is an image that appears grim and sad, with a gloomy atmosphere, set by the background, and a gruesome imagery seen through the open, bloody hearts. The double self-portrait is an oil and canvas image of a European and Mexican Frida. The European Frida’s dress is covered in blood from a cut heart vein, and both the women’s hearts are exposed, with European Frida’s appearing broken. The two figures are sat in the foreground of the image, with a woven bench beneath them and a stormy, grey sky as the background. The image doesn 't have a very distinct appearance of being three dimensional, through its lack of depth. Though the figures still appear closer to the audience then then other