Born in 1907, Mexican artist Frida Kahlo would become a voice for many women far beyond the span of her lifetime. It was said Frida thought the reason for her birth was so she would be associated with the Mexican Revolution. The Revolution began when Frida was only three years old, but had a lasting impact on her. Frida was also heavily influenced by indigenous Mexican culture, although she was not a direct descendant of Mexico. Her father, a Jewish-German, met her mother, a woman of Mexican and Indian decent, and married her shortly after the death of his first wife. Frida was the third of four daughters born in her parent’s home, La Casa Azul. This is where Frida would live, off and on, for most of her life; she would find peace in death within the comfort of the walls of The Blue House.
Much of her painting had to do with not the human condition itself, but of her individual condition. Injured as a young child from Polio, Frida’s right leg was thinner than her left and caused her to walk with a slight limp. At the age of nineteen, she was in a tragic bus accident that caused horrible damage to her body. A friend once said, “They had to put her back together in sections, like a photo montage.” (Stechler) The accident left her in a full body cast, making her immobile for nearly three months. Over the course of her life, she would have nearly thirty-five surgeries; one of these operations resulted in the amputation of her right leg. Using painting as a kind of therapy, Frida painted from her hospital bed. She would later say, “Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?” (Webster) Painting, it seemed, gave Frida a kind of supernatural strength and a feeling of purpose, although she had contemplated suicide in an attempt to deal with her hurt (Kettenmann 79). From the hospital bed, smaller, more intimate paintings were easier to create for Frida. She was once quoted saying, “I am not sick, I am broken. But I am happy as long as I can paint.”
Some critics argue that the size of Frida’s paintings could also be attributed to the patriarchal social systems of this era. Female artists were still very obscure and most definitely not given many accolades. It was only after meeting with Diego Rivera, a very famous muralist during this time, that Frida began painting as a career. Frida used bright colors and simple techniques (some would argue they were naïve) similar to Diego, as he was one of her great inspirations. Rivera, who recognized Frida’s talent and encouraged her to continue painting, would later become her husband. Before her death and subsequent post-hummus popularity, she was most often known as “Diego’s wife.” Her largest painting, “The Two Fridas” was only about 5 feet tall. It depicted both “sides” of Frida: the side Diego loved and the side he did not.
Most all of her paintings had to do with personal pain and loss. Graphic imagery was one of the unique aspects to her work. She exposed her physical degeneration, 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 around her open body which reveals a broken column where her spine used to be. One of her more sorrowful and graphic pieces was entitled “Henry Ford Hospital” (1932, Collection of Dolores Olmedo Foundation). Frida, who had several miscarriages over several years, is lying in a hospital bed surrounded by objects that include a hospital machine, a pelvic bone, and what appears to be a dead baby, having yet another miscarriage (Stechler).
Although she was virtually ignored throughout her lifetime, her posthumous recognition has had enormous impacts on female artists. Lying in her hospital bed, therapeutically painting away her anguish, one has to wonder what Frida would have thought about her future celebrity had she known. Would her paintings have been bigger? Would fame have gone to her head? Would her paintings become empty, as she was no longer painting for herself? These are all answers we will never know. One thing that is sure, however, is the haunting images born out of her pain will be cherished and remembered forever.
Daylight Films (Producer), Stechler, A. (Director). 2004. The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo [motion picture]. United States: ParamountStudios.
Kettenmann A., Frida Kahlo 1907-1954: Pain and Passion. Koln, Taschen, 2003.
Webster, A. (Producer). 2010. Frida [iTunes application]. United States: iTunes.
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