Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo was one of the greatest Mexican artists of the twentieth century. She was born in Coyoacan, Mexico, In 1907. Frida grew up during the Mexican Revolution, an event that influenced her life and changed the art of Mexico forever.

Frida often showed unpleasant things that happened during her life. These paintings are sometimes shocking to people. But Frida needed to paint them to help her through some hard times. This painting Without Hope, was done after a serious illness. Frida was weak and had no appetite, Her doctors wanted her to eat lots of strained foods. She was disgusted by the idea of being forced to eat, and showed how she felt about this in her painting.

• As a child Frida was stricken with polio.• She had planned to go to medical school once she recovered. • Unfortunately she was involved in a horrific bus accident and broke her leg and pelvis which lead to a life time of chronic pain.• This led Frida to turn to art.• Kahlo was known for her daring self portraits.• Almost all of her paintings portrayed pictures of her many personal tragedies.

• Where?

• In 1925, at the age of eighteen, Kahlo suffered appalling injuries in a streetcar accident, Following her accident Kahlo started painting, becoming an important surrealist. Her paintings, mostly self-portraits, employ the iconography of ancient Mesoamerican cultures to depict both her physical suffering and her passion for Mexican politics and for the love of her life, Diego Rivera, whom she married in 1929.

Characteristics Of Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo's fundamental needs, values, and orientation towards life are symbolized by the four astrological elements:

fire (warmth, inspiration, enthusiasm) earth (practicality, realism, material interests) air (social and intellectual qualities) water (emotional needs and feelings).

frequently used technical devices and subject matter from Mexican archaeology and folk art.

broad, simplified color areas and a deliberately naive style in her paintings.

she wanted her paintings to affirm her Mexican identity

inclusion of free use of space, and the juxtaposition of incongruous objects.

Surrealist? Not quite.

She did not renounce Surrealism immediately. in January 1940, she was a participant in the International Exhibition of Surrealism held in Mexico City. Later, she was intense in her denials that she had ever been a true Surrealist. 'They thought I was a Surrealist,' she said, 'but I wasn't. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality

Kahlo primarily depicted her personal experience. She frequently focused on the painful aspects of her life, using graphic imagery to convey her meaning. The turbulence of her marriage is shown in the weeping and physically injured self-portraits she painted when she felt rejected by Rivera.

She portrayed her physical disintegration, the result of the bus accident, in such works as The Broken Column (1944, Collection of Dolores Olmedo Foundation, Mexico City), in which she wears a metal brace and her body is open to reveal a broken column in place of her spine.

Her sorrow over her inability to bear children is revealed in paintings such as Henry Ford Hospital (1932, Collection of Dolores Olmedo Foundation), in which objects that include a baby, a pelvic bone, and a machine hover around a hospital bed where she lies having a miscarriage.

Henry Ford Hospital

The Broken Column

Frida Kahlo - The Broken

Frida Kahlo, Self-PortraitFrida Kahlo's Last Supper

Without Hope 1945

Serendipity - Frida Kahlo

Works cited

http://www.glbtq.com/arts/kahlo_f.html Google Images www. brittanica.com