Paintings of Frida Kahlo and her life. About the work of the Mexican artist.
Today I watched the film “Frida” (2002, directed by Julia Taymor). I must say, the picture is very impressive. Until that moment, I was not interested in the biography of the artist. All I remembered about her were self-portraits with unforgettable eyebrows. As a matter of fact, Frida is known primarily for her self-portraits. Now I understand why...
When Frida was 18, she was in a serious accident. She suffered fractures of the spine, ribs, legs and many other injuries. Doctors were inclined to believe that the girl would no longer be able to walk. For about a year she lay without getting up, in an orthopedic corset. Parents spent all their money on doctors, without losing hope for a better outcome.
It was at this time that Frida began to draw. In the film, a girl paints butterflies on her plaster corset. Judging by surviving photographs, she actually used a corset instead of a canvas.
A little later, a special easel was made for Frida so that she could paint while lying down. A mirror was attached to the ceiling. The girl's first painting was a self-portrait.
A year later, Frida began to walk, but for the rest of her life she experienced constant pain throughout her body.
Perhaps, in appearance, Salma Hayek (she plays main role in the film "Frida") is much more beautiful than the artist. And yet, there is something attractive about the real Frida. She has a simple face, but her gaze is very piercing. It was not for nothing that Leon Trotsky wrote a letter to the artist: “You gave me back my youth and took away my sanity. With you, I feel like a 17-year-old boy.” Lev Davidovich lost his head over this woman.
For the last 10 years of her life, the artist kept a diary. It contains not only Frida's notes, but also her watercolor drawings. Many of Kahlo's thoughts can be learned from him, but also from her paintings.
Artist Frida Kahlo (biography).
The work of Frida Kahlo is unusual and characteristic only of her. The artist did not imitate anyone. her painting is individual.
Frida Kahlo's paintings speak volumes. From these paintings one can judge the artist’s life, her fears and dreams.
Frida herself said the following about her works: “My work is the most full biography, which I was able to write." She was a self-taught artist and painted pictures not the way she was taught, but the way she felt in her heart. And, judging by the artist’s paintings, she was not too happy, despite the fact that in public she always smiled radiantly and sparkled with humor. Perhaps her paintings express the pain that she felt all the time. Pain in the body from the consequences of the accident, pain in the soul from the inability to have a child and the betrayal of her husband.
Those around them gave their marriage to Diego Rivera a period of 2 months. However, despite all the difficulties, they lived for 25 years, until Frida’s death. In this photo Frida is with Diego.
There are moments in the film that can deeply touch and even shock. For example, Frida's child preserved in alcohol in a jar. She paints it from life. But despite such scenes, this movie is worth watching. The description of a woman's life is dramatic and surprising.
I was very impressed by Frida's appearance at her latest exhibition. The artist was brought directly on the bed, since the doctor categorically forbade her to get up. And this is not the director's idea. That's how it really was.
I have heard the song “Frida” by the group many times Alai Oli. After watching the film, she is perceived completely differently. Previously it was just a bunch of words, now it makes sense.
Shortly before her death, the artist wrote in her diary that she was cheerfully awaiting her end and hoped that she would never return...
Calo de Rivera Frida is a Mexican artist best known for her self-portraits.
Frida Kahlo de Rivera (Spanish: Frida Kahlo de Rivera), or Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo Calderon (Spanish: Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo Calderon; Coyoacan, Mexico City, July 6, 1907 - July 13, 1954) was a Mexican artist best known for her self-portraits. Mexican culture and the art of the peoples of pre-Columbian America had a noticeable influence on her work. Artistic style Frida Kahlo is sometimes characterized as naïve art or folk art. The founder of surrealism, Andre Breton, ranked her among the surrealists. She was in poor health all her life, suffering from polio from the age of six, and also suffered a serious car accident in her teens, after which she had to undergo numerous surgeries that affected her entire life. In 1929, she married the artist Diego Rivera, and, like him, supported the Communist Party. Frida Kahlo was born on July 6, 1907 in Coyoacan, a suburb of Mexico City (she later changed her year of birth to 1910 for the Mexican Revolution). Her father was photographer Guillermo Calo, a German of Jewish descent. Frida's mother, Matilda Calderon, was Mexican with Indian roots. Frida Kahlo was the third child in the family. At the age of 6, she suffered from polio, after the illness she was left with a limp for the rest of her life, and her right leg became thinner than her left (which Kahlo hid under all her life). long skirts). Such an early experience of the struggle for the right to a full life strengthened Frida’s character. Frida was involved in boxing and other sports. At the age of 15, she entered the "Preparatory" (National Preparatory School), one of the best schools Mexico to study medicine. Of the 2,000 students in this school, there were only 35 girls. Frida immediately gained authority by creating the closed group “Cachuchas” with eight other students. Her behavior was often called shocking. In the Preparatorium, her first meeting took place with her future husband, the famous Mexican artist Diego Rivera, who worked at the Preparatory School on the painting “Creation” from 1921 to 1923.
At the age of eighteen, on September 17, 1925, Frida was involved in a serious accident. The bus she was traveling on collided with a tram. Frida received serious injuries: a triple fracture of the spine (in the lumbar region), a fractured collarbone, broken ribs, a triple fracture of the pelvis, eleven fractures of the bones of the right leg, a crushed and dislocated right foot, and a dislocated shoulder. In addition, her stomach and uterus were pierced by a metal railing, which seriously damaged her reproductive function. She was bedridden for a year, and health problems remained for the rest of her life. Subsequently, Frida had to undergo several dozen operations, without leaving the hospital for months. Despite her ardent desire, she was never able to become a mother. It was after the tragedy that she first asked her father for brushes and paints. A special stretcher was made for Frida, which allowed her to write while lying down. A large mirror was attached under the canopy of the bed so that she could see herself. The first painting was a self-portrait, which forever determined the main direction of creativity: “I paint myself because I spend a lot of time alone and because I am the topic that I know best.”
In 1928 she joined the Mexican Communist Party. In 1929, Frida Kahlo became the wife of Diego Rivera. He was 43 years old, she was 22. The two artists were brought together not only by art, but also by common communist political beliefs. Their stormy life together became a legend. Many years later, Frida said: “There were two accidents in my life: one was when a bus crashed into a tram, the other was Diego.” In the 1930s, Frida lived for some time in the USA, where her husband worked. This forced long stay abroad, in a developed industrial country, made her more acutely aware of national differences. Since then, Frida had a special love for Mexican folk culture and collected ancient works applied arts, even in everyday life wore national costumes. A trip to Paris in 1939, where Frida became a sensation at a thematic exhibition of Mexican art (one of her paintings was even acquired by the Louvre), further developed patriotic feelings. In 1937, Soviet revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky briefly took refuge in the house of Diego and Frida; he and Frida began an affair. It is believed that his too obvious infatuation with the temperamental Mexican forced him to leave them. In the 1940s, Frida's paintings appeared in several notable exhibitions. At the same time, her health problems are getting worse. Medicines and drugs designed to reduce physical suffering change it state of mind, which is clearly reflected in the Diary, which has become a cult among her fans. In 1953, her first personal exhibition took place in her homeland. By that time, Frida could no longer get out of bed, and she was brought to the opening of the exhibition in a hospital bed. Soon, due to the onset of gangrene, her right leg was amputated below the knee. Frida Kahlo died on July 13, 1954 from pneumonia. Shortly before her death, she left the last entry in her diary: “I hope that my departure will be successful and I will not return again.” Some of Frida Kahlo's friends suggested that she died of an overdose, and her death could not have been accidental. However, there is no evidence for this version, and no autopsy was performed. Farewell to Frida Kahlo took place at the Palace fine arts. In addition to Diego Rivera, the ceremony was attended by Mexican President Lazaro Cardenas and many artists. Since 1955, Frida Kahlo's Blue House has become a museum in her memory.
Lit.: Teresa del Conde. Vida de Frida Kahlo. - Mexico: Departamento Editorial, Secretaría de la Presidencia, 1976. Teresa del Conde. Frida Kahlo: La Pintora y el Mito. - Barcelona, 2002. Drucker M. Frida Kahlo. - Albuquerque, 1995. Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Mexican Modernism. (Cat.). - S.F.: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1996. Frida Kahlo. (Cat.). - L. The diary of Frida Kahlo: an intimate self-portrait / H.N. Abrams. - N.Y., 1995. , 2005. Leclezio J.-M. Diego and Frida. - M.: KoLibri, 2006. Kettenmann A. Frida Kahlo: Passion and Pain. - M., 2006. - 96 p. Prignitz-Poda H. Frida Kahlo: Life and Work. - N.Y., 2007. Herrera H. Frida Kahlo. Viva la vida!. - M., 2004.
Frida Kahlo de Rivera (07/6/1907, Mexico City, Mexico - 07/13/1954, Mexico City, Mexico) - full name Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo Calderon — mexican artist, best known for her self-portraits.
Biography of Frida Kahlo.
Frida Kahlo was born in large family photographer, Guillermo Calo, with German roots. Her mother, Matilda Calderon, was of Mexican Indian descent. At the age of 6, Frida falls ill with polio, which leaves a complication in the form of lameness for life.
In 1922, Frida entered one of the best Mexican schools called “Preparatoria”, where she studied medicine. At this school she met her future husband, already famous artist Diego Rivera.
In September 1925, an accident occurred that divided Frida Kahlo’s life into “before” and “after”: the bus on which the artist was traveling collided with a tram. In this disaster, young Frida receives many severe injuries: triple fracture of the spine, fractured collarbone, several broken ribs, fractured pelvis, crushed right leg and foot. On that day, she received puncture wounds in the stomach from a metal railing. Frida underwent many operations, after which she spent months in hospitals.
From this moment her development as an artist begins: being bedridden, Frida asks her father to give her brushes, paints and canvases. A stretcher was built on the bed so that one could write while lying down, and a mirror was hung above the bed. So Frida became her own model and subject of study. Her first work was a self-portrait. Subsequently, Frida Kahlo only worked in this direction.
At the age of 21, Frida Kahlo joined the Mexican Communist Party. A year later, Diego Rivera proposes to the artist, and soon marries her. Despite the large difference in age, they were brought together by common interests in art, and common Political Views. In 1930, Diego received an invitation to work in the USA, which he agreed to, and Frida followed her husband to America for 4 long years, where she began to acutely feel her Mexican roots, a special love for Mexican folk art and national costumes, which she I started wearing it everywhere.
In 1937, already in Mexico, Frida and Diego give shelter and refuge in their house to an expelled Soviet Union Leon Trotsky.
In 1939, Frida took part in the Mexican exhibition in Paris, where she immediately became the center of attention, and the Louvre acquired her painting.
In the 1940s, Frida Kahlo's works took part in many significant exhibitions. During this period, the artist’s health worsened, and the prescribed treatment, which was intended to relieve pain, caused strong changes mentally and psychologically.
In 1953, a personal exhibition of the artist was held, to which Frida arrived on a hospital bed, since at that time she could no longer walk. And this event was followed by an operation: gangrene began on the right leg, and it had to be amputated almost to the knee.
On July 13, 1954, Frida Kahlo died of pneumonia. There is much debate about the cause of death, as a post-mortem autopsy was not performed. There is an assumption that the death of the Mexican artist is associated with a drug overdose. The farewell ceremony for Frida took place at the Palace of Fine Arts, which was even attended by the President of Mexico, Lazaro Cardenas.
In 1955, the house in Coyoacan in which Frida lived, the Blue House, acquired the status of a museum.
Text: Maria Mikhantieva
A Frida Kahlo retrospective is being held in St. Petersburg until the end of April.- a great Mexican artist who became the soul and heart of women's painting throughout the world. It is customary to tell Frida’s life through the story of overcoming physical pain, however, as is usually the case, this is only one aspect of a complex and multifaceted path. Frida Kahlo was not just the wife of the renowned painter Diego Rivera or a symbol of mental and physical strength - all her life the artist wrote, starting from her own internal contradictions, complex relationships with independence and love, talking about the one she knew best - herself.
The biography of Frida Kahlo is more or less known to everyone who watched Julie Taymor's film with Salma Hayek: carefree childhood and youth, a terrible accident, an almost accidental passion for painting, meeting the artist Diego Rivera, marriage and the eternal status of “everything is complicated.” Physical pain, mental pain, self-portraits, abortions and miscarriages, communism, romance novels, worldwide fame, slow fading and long-awaited death: “I hope that leaving will be successful and I will not return again,” sleeping Frida flies into eternity on the bed.
We don’t know whether the departure itself was successful, but for the first twenty years after it it seemed that Frida’s wish had been fulfilled: she was forgotten everywhere except her native Mexico, where a house-museum was opened almost immediately. In the late 1970s, in the wake of interest in women's art and neo-Mexicanism, her works began to appear occasionally at exhibitions. However, in 1981 in the dictionary contemporary art The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Art gave her just one line: “Kahlo, Frida. See Rivera, Diego Maria.”
“There were two accidents in my life: one was when a bus crashed into a tram, the other was Diego,” said Frida. The first accident made her start painting, the second made her an artist. The first one felt physical pain all my life, the second caused mental pain. These two experiences subsequently became the main themes of her paintings. If the car accident really was a fatal accident (Frida was supposed to be on another bus, but got off halfway to look for a forgotten umbrella), then difficult relationships(after all, Diego Rivera was not the only one) were inevitable due to the contradictions of her nature, in which strength and independence were combined with sacrifice and obsession.
"Frida and Diego Rivera", 1931
I had to learn to be strong as a child: first by helping my father survive attacks of epilepsy, and then by coping with the consequences of polio. Frida played football and boxing; at school she was part of a gang of “cachuchas” - hooligans and intellectuals. When management educational institution invited Rivera, then already a recognized master, to do the mural painting, she rubbed soap on the steps of the stairs to see how this man with the face of a toad and the physique of an elephant would slip. She considered girls' company banal, preferred to be friends with boys and dated the most popular and intelligent of them, who was also several grades older.
But having fallen in love, Frida seemed to lose the mind that she so valued in people. She could literally pursue the object of her passion, bombarding her with letters, seducing and manipulating - all in order to then play the role of a faithful companion. This was how her marriage to Diego Rivera was at first. They both cheated, separated and got back together, but, if you believe the memories of friends, Frida more often gave in, trying to preserve the relationship. “She treated him like a beloved dog,” one friend recalled. “He’s with her like he’s with his favorite thing.” Even in the “wedding” portrait of “Frida and Diego Rivera” only one of the two artists is depicted with professional attributes, a palette and brushes - and this is not Frida.
While Diego painted frescoes for days on end, spending the night on scaffolding, she brought him lunch baskets, took care of bills, saved on much-needed medical procedures (Diego spent a lot of money on his collection of pre-Columbian statues), listened attentively and accompanied him to exhibitions. Under the influence of her husband, her paintings also changed: if Frida painted her very first portraits, imitating Renaissance artists from art albums, then thanks to Diego, the national traditions of Mexico glorified by the revolution penetrated into them: the naivety of the retablo, Indian motifs and the aesthetics of Mexican Catholicism with its theatricalization of suffering, combining image of bleeding wounds with a splendor of flowers, lace and ribbons.
"Alejandro Gomez Arias", 1928
To please her husband, she even changed her jeans and leather jackets on full skirts and became a “tehuana”. This image was completely devoid of any authenticity, since Frida combined clothes and accessories from different social groups and eras, she could wear an Indian skirt with a Creole blouse and earrings by Picasso. In the end, her ingenuity turned this masquerade into separate species art: having started dressing for her husband, she continued to create unique images for her own pleasure. In her diary, Frida noted that the costume was also a self-portrait; her dresses became characters in paintings, and now accompany them at exhibitions. If the paintings were a reflection of the inner storm, then the costumes became its armor. It is no coincidence that a year after the divorce, “Self-portrait with cropped hair” appeared, in which a men’s suit took the place of skirts and ribbons - Frida once posed in something similar for a family portrait long before meeting Diego.
The first serious attempt to get out of the influence of her husband was the decision to give birth. Natural childbirth were impossible, but there was still hope for C-section. Frida was rushing about. On the one hand, she passionately wanted to continue the family line, to extend further that red ribbon, which she would later depict in the painting “My Grandparents, My Parents and Me,” to get “little Diego” at her disposal. On the other hand, Frida understood that the birth of a child would tie her to home, interfere with her work and alienate her from Rivera, who was categorically against children. In her first letters to family friend Dr. Leo Eloisseur, pregnant Frida asks which option would cause less harm to her health, but without waiting for an answer, she decides to continue the pregnancy and does not back down. Paradoxically, the choice that is usually imposed on a woman “by default”, in Frida’s case, becomes a rebellion against her husband’s guardianship.
Unfortunately, the pregnancy ended in miscarriage. Instead of “little Diego”, “Henry Ford Hospital” was born - one of the saddest works, which began a series of “bloody” paintings. Perhaps this was the first time in the history of art when an artist spoke with extreme, almost physiological honesty about women’s pain, so much so that men’s legs gave way. Four years later, the organizer of her Paris exhibition, Pierre Collet, did not even immediately decide to exhibit these paintings, considering them too shocking.
Finally, that part of a woman’s life that had always been bashfully hidden from prying eyes was revealed
in a work of art
Misfortunes haunted Frida: after the death of her child, she experienced the death of her mother, and one can only guess what a blow Diego’s next affair was for her, this time with her younger sister. She, however, blamed herself and was ready to forgive, just not to become a “hysterical” - her thoughts on this matter are painfully similar to the age-old thesis that “”. But in the case of Frida, humility and the ability to endure went hand in hand with black humor and irony.
Feeling her inferiority, the insignificance of her feelings compared to men’s, she brought this experience to the point of absurdity in the film “A Few Small Pricks”. “I just poked her a few times,” said a man who stabbed his girlfriend to death in court. Having learned about this story from the newspapers, Frida wrote a work full of sarcasm, literally drenched in blood (spots of red paint “splashed out” even onto the frame). A calm killer stands above the bloody body of a woman (his hat is a hint of Diego), and above, like a mockery, floats the name written on a ribbon held by doves, so similar to a wedding decoration.
Among Rivera's fans, there is an opinion that Frida's paintings are “salon painting.” Perhaps, at first, Frida herself would have agreed with this. She was always critical of her own work, did not seek to make friends with gallerists and dealers, and when someone bought her paintings, she often complained that the money could have been spent more profitably. There was some coquetry in this, but, frankly speaking, it is difficult to feel confident when your husband is a recognized master who works all day long, and you are a self-taught person who can hardly find time for painting between housework and medical operations. “The works of the budding artist are definitely significant and threaten even her crowned laurels famous husband", was written in the press release for Frida's first New York exhibition (1938); “little Frida” - that’s what the author of the TIME publication called her. By that time, the “beginner” “little one” had been writing for nine years.
"Roots", 1943
But the lack of high expectations gave complete freedom. “I write myself because I spend a lot of time alone and because I am the topic that I know best,” Frida said, and in addressing this “topic” there was not only subjectivity, but also subjectivity. The women who posed for Diego turned into nameless allegories in his frescoes; Frida has always been the main character. This position was strengthened by doubling portraits: she often painted herself simultaneously in different images and hypostases. The large canvas “Two Fridas” was created during the divorce proceedings; on it, Frida wrote herself “beloved” (on the right, in a Tehuan costume) and “unloved” (in a Victorian dress, bleeding), as if declaring that she was now her own “other half.” In the painting "My Birth", created shortly after her first miscarriage, she depicts herself as a newborn, but apparently also associates it with the figure of a mother, whose face is hidden.
The New York exhibition mentioned above helped Frida become freer. For the first time, she felt independent: she went to New York alone, met people, received orders for portraits and started affairs, not because her husband was too busy, but because she liked it that way. The exhibition was generally received favorably. Of course, there were critics who said that Frida’s paintings were too “gynecological,” but this was rather a compliment: finally, that part of a woman’s life, which theorists of “female destiny” had been talking about for centuries, but which was always bashfully hidden from prying eyes, was revealed in a work of art.
The New York exhibition was followed by a Paris exhibition, organized with the direct participation of Andre Breton, who considered Frida a prominent surrealist. She agreed to the exhibition, but carefully rejected surrealism. There are many symbols on Frida’s canvases, but there are no hints: everything is obvious, like an illustration from an anatomical atlas, and at the same time flavored with excellent humor. The dreaminess and decadence inherent in the surrealists irritated her; their nightmares and Freudian projections seemed like childish babble compared to what she experienced in reality: “Ever since [the accident], I have been obsessed with the idea of depicting things as my eyes see them, and nothing more." “She has no illusions,” Rivera chimed in.
roots, stems and fruits, and in the diary entries the refrain is “Diego is my child.”
It became impossible to be a mother to my husband after a series of spinal surgeries and amputations: first a pair of toes on the right foot, then the entire lower leg. Frida habitually endured the pain, but was afraid of losing her mobility. Nevertheless, she was brave: when preparing for the operation, she put on one of the best dresses, and for the prosthesis she ordered a red leather boot with embroidery. Despite serious condition, an addiction to narcotic painkillers and mood swings, was preparing for the 25th anniversary of her first wedding and even persuaded Diego to take her to a communist demonstration. Continuing to work from last bit of strength, at some point thought about making her paintings more political, which seemed unthinkable after so many years spent depicting personal experiences. Perhaps, if Frida had survived the illness, we would have gotten to know her from a new, unexpected side. But pneumonia, caught at that very demonstration, ended the artist’s life on July 13, 1954.
“For twelve years of work, everything was excluded that did not come from the inner lyrical motivation that made me write,” Frida explained in an application for a Guggenheim Foundation grant in 1940, “Because my themes were always my own feelings, the state of my mind and responses to what life put into me, I often embodied all this in the image of myself, which was the most sincere and real, so I could express everything that was happening in me and in the outside world.”
"My Birth", 1932
The flamboyant Mexican artist Frida Kahlo is best known to the public for her symbolic self-portraits and depictions of Mexican and Amerindian cultures. Known for her strong and strong-willed character, as well as her communist sentiments, Kahlo left an indelible mark not only on Mexican but also on world painting.
The artist had a difficult fate: almost all her life she was haunted by numerous diseases, operations and unsuccessful treatments. So, at the age of six, Frida was bedridden by polio, as a result of which her right leg became thinner than her left and the girl remained lame for life. The father encouraged his daughter in every possible way, involving her in male sports at that time - swimming, football and even wrestling. In many ways, this helped Frida form a persistent, courageous character.
The event of 1925 was a turning point in Frida's career as an artist. On September 17, she was involved in an accident along with her fellow student and lover Alejandro Gomez Arias. As a result of the collision, Frida ended up in the Red Cross hospital with numerous fractures of the pelvis and spine. Serious injuries led to a difficult and painful recovery. It was at this time that she asked to be given paints and a brush: a mirror suspended under the canopy of the bed allowed the artist to see herself and she began her creative path from self-portraits.
Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera
Being one of the few female students of the National preparatory school, Frida is already interested in political discourse during her studies. In later life, she even became a member of the Mexican Communist Party and the Young Communist League.
It was during her studies that Frida first met the then famous wall painting master Diego Rivera. Kahlo often watched Rivera as he worked on the Creation mural in the school auditorium. Some sources claim that Frida already spoke about her desire to give birth to a child from the muralist.
Rivera encouraged creative work Frida, but the union of two bright personalities was very unstable. Most of the time, Diego and Frida lived separately, moving into houses or apartments next door. Frida was upset by her husband’s numerous infidelities, and she was especially hurt by Diego’s relationship with her younger sister Cristina. In response to the family betrayal, Kahlo cut off her famous black locks and captured the resentment and pain she suffered in the painting “Memory (Heart).”
Nevertheless, the sensual and ardent artist also had affairs on the side. Among her lovers are the famous American avant-garde sculptor of Japanese origin Isamu Noguchi, and the communist refugee Leon Trotsky, who took refuge in Frida's Blue House (Casa Azul) in 1937. Kahlo was bisexual, so her romantic relationships with women are also known, for example, with the American pop artist Josephine Baker.
Despite betrayals and affairs on both sides, Frida and Diego, even breaking up in 1939, reunited again and remained spouses until the artist’s death.
The husband's infidelity and inability to give birth to a child are clearly depicted in Kahlo's paintings. The embryos, fruits and flowers depicted in many of Frida's paintings symbolize precisely her inability to bear children, which was the reason for her extreme depressive states. Thus, the painting “Henry Ford Hospital” depicts a naked artist and symbols of her infertility - an embryo, a flower, damaged hip joints, connected to her by bloody vein-like threads. At the New York exhibition in 1938, this painting was presented under the title “Lost Desire.”
Features of creativity
The uniqueness of Frida’s paintings lies in the fact that all her self-portraits are not limited to depicting solely her appearance. Each canvas is rich in details from the artist’s life: each depicted object is symbolic. It is also significant how exactly Frida depicted the connections between objects: most of the connections are blood vessels that feed the heart.
Each self-portrait contains clues to the meaning of what is depicted: the artist herself always imagined herself serious, without a shadow of a smile on her face, but her feelings are expressed through the prism of perception of the background, color palette, objects surrounding Frida.
Already in 1932, more graphic and surreal elements were visible in Kahlo’s work. Frida herself was alien to surrealism with far-fetched and fantastic plots: the artist expressed real suffering on her canvases. The connection with this movement was rather symbolic, since in Frida’s paintings one can detect the influence of pre-Columbian civilization, national Mexican motifs and symbols, as well as the theme of death. In 1938, fate brought her into contact with the founder of surrealism, Andre Breton, about a meeting with whom Frida herself spoke as follows: “I never thought that I was a surrealist until Andre Breton came to Mexico and told me about it.” Before meeting Breton, Frida's self-portraits were rarely perceived as something special, but French poet I saw surreal motifs on the canvases, which made it possible to depict the artist’s emotions and her unspoken pain. Thanks to this meeting, a successful exhibition of Kahlo's paintings took place in New York.
In 1939, after her divorce from Diego Rivera, Frida painted one of the most telling paintings - “The Two Fridas”. The painting depicts two natures of one person. One Frida dressed in white dress, which shows drops of blood flowing from her wounded heart; The dress of the second Frida has a brighter color, and the heart is unharmed. Both Fridas are connected by blood vessels that feed both exposed hearts - a technique often used by the artist to convey heartache. Frida in bright national clothes is exactly that “ Mexican Frida", which Diego loved, and the image of the artist in the Victorian wedding dress- a Westernized version of the woman Diego abandoned. Frida holds her hand, emphasizing her loneliness.
Kahlo's paintings are etched into the memory not only by their images, but also by their bright, energetic palette. In her diary, Frida herself tried to explain the colors used in the creation of her paintings. Thus, green was associated with a kind, warm light, magenta purple was associated with the Aztec past, yellow symbolized insanity, fear and illness, and blue symbolized purity of love and energy.
Frida's legacy
In 1951, after more than 30 operations, the mentally and physically broken artist was able to endure the pain only thanks to painkillers. Even at that time, it was difficult for her to draw as before, and Frida used medications along with alcohol. Previously detailed images became more blurry, drawn hastily and inattentively. As a result of alcohol abuse and frequent psychological breakdowns, the artist's death in 1954 gave rise to many rumors of suicide.
But with her death, Frida’s fame only increased, and her beloved Blue House became a museum-gallery of paintings by Mexican artists. The feminist movement of the 1970s also revived interest in the artist, as Frida was seen by many as an iconic figure of feminism. The Biography of Frida Kahlo, written by Hayden Herrera, and the film Frida, filmed in 2002, do not allow this interest to fade.
Self-portraits of Frida Kahlo
More than half of Frida's works are self-portraits. She started drawing at the age of 18, after she was in a terrible accident. Her body was badly broken: her spine was damaged, her pelvic bones, collarbone, ribs were broken, and there were eleven fractures on one leg alone. Frida's life was in the balance, but the young girl was able to win, and, oddly enough, drawing helped her with this. Even in the hospital room, a large mirror was placed in front of her and Frida drew herself.
In almost all self-portraits, Frida Kahlo portrayed herself as serious, gloomy, as if frozen and cold with a stern, impenetrable face, but all the emotions and emotional experiences of the artist can be felt in the details and figures surrounding her. Each of the paintings contains the feelings that Frida experienced at a certain point in time. With the help of a self-portrait, she seemed to be trying to understand herself, to reveal her inner world, to free herself from the passions raging inside her.
The artist was amazing person With enormous power of will, who loves life, knows how to rejoice and love limitlessly. Her positive attitude towards the world around her and her surprisingly subtle sense of humor attracted the most different people. Many sought to get into her “Blue House” with indigo-colored walls, to recharge with the optimism that the girl fully possessed.
Frida Kahlo put into every self-portrait she painted the strength of her character, all the mental anguish she experienced, the pain of loss and genuine willpower; she does not smile in any of them. The artist always portrays herself as strict and serious. Frida suffered the betrayal of her beloved husband Diego Rivera very hard and painfully. Self-portraits written during that period of time are literally permeated with suffering and pain. However, despite all the trials of fate, the artist was able to leave behind more than two hundred paintings, each of which is unique.