This week marks the 100th birthday of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. While there are some purists that say it is her 103rd birthday, Kahlo considered her birth year to be 1910 because it marked the start of the Mexican Revolution and she wanted her life began together with the modern Mexico. Kahlo identified strongly with her country and Mexican symbolism dominates many of her paintings.
This is emblematic of her personality. Since her childhood, Kahlo possessed a deep sense of independence and rebellion against social and moral norms. She was moved by passion and sensuality and proud of her "Mexicanidad" and cultural tradition. These, all mixed with her honesty and peculiar sense of humor, found expression in her art.
The Broken Column, 1944
My introduction to Frida Kahlo’s work was The Broken Column and I had an immediate affinity for her work. That isn’t too surprising, I guess, since it could (except for the eyebrow) have passed as a portrait of me at the time, complete with the heavy canvas-covered metal brace. Another version of the brace, also identical to one of mine, can be seen below in Tree of Hope.
Her work is painfully autobiographical—it can't really be comprehended outside her own often traumatic experiences. Kahlo’s life was marked by physical suffering, started with the polio contracted at the age of five and worsen by her life-dominating event occurred in 1925. A bus accident caused severe injuries to her body when a pole pierced her from the stomach to the pelvis. The medicine of her time tortured her body with surgical operations (32 in the last 29 years of her life), corsets of different kinds and mechanical "stretching" systems, leaving her partially crippled, in constant pain and unable to have children. This injury heavily impacted her quality of life and her physical suffering was a constant theme of her work.
Kahlo was also a great lover of animals, and they often figure prominently in her work. Many of her self-portraits include her beloved monkeys and parrots, with whom she shared her home. Others were used for their symbolism.
Frida Kahlo with her pet fawn, 1939
The Little Deer, 1941
An enormous fan of the infamous philanderer and amazing painter and muralist, Diego Rivera, Kahlo eventually married the self-centered genius, who was frequently unfaithful to her, including with her own sister Christina. Kahlo responded by having affairs with both men and women, including with Leon Trotsky. Her relationship with Rivera compounded her infinite suffering, scarring her emotionally and also inspiring many of her brilliant works.
Frida con expejo, 1944
Of her art Kahlo said, "The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration." She painted many self-portraits, largely because her disability meant she was alone much of the time. Frequently she was confined to bed and painted her self-portraits by holding a mirror in her left hand, as the photo "Frida con espejo" shows.
Self Portrait, 1940
Although in her lifetime Kahlo painted primarily for herself (most of her artistic fame was posthumous), by combining Mexican and modernist themes she somewhat inadvertently created a very Mexican form of modern art. Kahlo's works also draws on sources from Mexican folk art and myth. For example, in Self Portrait the lattice of thorns bring to mind the iconography of popular Catholicism—in Mexican churches, Jesus's passion, particularly his crown of thorns, is depicted graphically, with droplets of blood dripping down his body. The hummingbird, which Frida frequently uses to symbolize herself, was a common theme in pre-Columbian myth; the Aztec deity Huitzilopochtli, god of war, was associated with the hummingbird.
Kahlo’s paintings were also strongly influenced by earlier Mexican art forms, particularly retablos, the small votive paintings made by Mexican journeymen artists in a tradition that dated back to the colonial era. Retablos were painted on tin and created to thank a holy being or saint for saving a person from some peril or illness. Her art has a folk-like quality and was generally painted on metal rather than canvas, but its closest similarity to retablos is in its sensibility. Hayden Herrera, Kahlo's biographersaid, "both [art forms] record the facts of physical distress without squeamishness. Both evince a kind of deadpan reportorial directness."
The Flower Basket
This symbolism can also be seen works like Basket of Flowers, which Kahlo painted in 1941 for the actress Paulette Goddard, who was having an affair with Kahlo's husband, Diego Rivera, at the time. This oil painting on a 12-inch copper circle draws heavily on the retablo style. In her diary, Frida identifies the hummingbird as representing herself, while the butterfly represents Goddard.
Tree of Hope, 1946
Tree of Hope is one of Kahlo’s most richly symbolic paintings. The setting of Tree of Hope is a Mexican desert, the cracks in its earth echoing the scars on Kahlo's naked body. The painting is divided into night and day, the Tehuana Frida sitting under the moon, the operated-on Frida lying under the sun. The use of night and day brings to mind paintings of the Surrealist Réné Magritte, but it is also consistent with Aztec and Mayan mythology, especially the idea of the eternal battle between night and day. In Tree of Hope it is as if two Frida Kahlos, two distinct selves (and the struggles between them), are being presented, one closer to her public persona, the courageous and exotically dressed Mexican woman who identified strongly with her homeland, and the other the more private self, the woman who suffered relentless pain (Kahlo once joked she held the world record for medical operations).
Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes believes Kahlo's pain is not purely personal, though. Rather, the way she combined Mexican themes with her own suffering so regularly suggests to Fuentes that her pain is symbolic of that of the Mexican nation—the damage caused by colonialism, the pervasive poverty, especially among indigenous people, and the endless political upheavals, including revolutions, which have torn the country apart. Fuentes suggests that Kahlo's work is a powerful reminder of how, in everyday Latin America, there is "a spontaneous fusing of myth and fact, dream and vigil, reason and fantasy."
There are many sites on the internet dedicated to Frida Kahlo. One of the most useful is Frida and contemporary thought, which maintains a current catalog of exhibits and events related to Kahlo, in addition to other news, paintings, biography, critical essays, comics, and other artistic interpretations of Kahlo’s work, including dance and plays.
But before you rush off to celebrate Frida Kahlo’s birthday, a word from our sponsors. . . .
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Tonight’s Top Comments. . . .
From Julie Gulden:
LeftHandedMan made this comment in my Rachel on MTP diary.
From BentLiberal:
nailbender responds to a comment on Sting's endorsement of CA's Cannabis initiative. Come on, admit it - you've told a story like like this before! :-)
From happy camper:
Great comment by Beelzebud in Susan G's FP article Zombie Social Security lies: Retirement age must be raised because people are living longer. It starts out with "The only people that want it raised don't work.," and gets better by the word.
It's easy for guys like Andrew Sullivan to sit on his ass, in the AC, and peck away on his computer telling other people that they should be fine to work until they're 70.
From StepLeftStepForward:
Just had to share these two excellent comments in pico's non-meta meta diary: Catte Nappe's observation about Sychotic1, who isn't taking sides in the aptly named "doom and gloom vs. rainbow farting unicorns war" I'm with them.
From JanF:
NCrissieB's Morning Feature diary about the "Apollo Project" for Green Energy that has been started had some great comments: etbnc's comment talks about how "sustainability begins with an attitude of possibility," DefendOurConstitution adds some sobering numbers and DBunn concludes that "even inefficient effort aimed in more or less the right direction can produce valuable results-- especially when compared to no effort at all, or effort in precisely the wrong direction."
From FishOutofWater:
Tacet raises a perplexing question that explains why I write here. I hope that somehow, by raising environmental awareness, we can make the impossible possible to avert a catastrophe of biblical proportions.
From me:
deha restates the painfully obvious, which Dems still seem unable to grasp, in gjohnsit's diary.
judyms9 points out whypeople don't want to talk about unemployment in GenXProgress' State of the Unemployed.
Tonight’s Top Mojo . . . .
Top Mojo excluding search-identifiable tip jars, first diary comments, and C&J comments:
1 - I'm sick of the black and white (no pun.....followyourbliss.....177
2 - But if Obama does it, it must be right......expatjourno.....137
3 - Democratic leaders should be fighting for jobs.....FishOutofWater.....127
4 - Short-Sighted Liberals.....Kitty.....112
5 - Truth is: this diary isn't about Obama, at all........bobswern.....97
6 - Highlight this.....DanK Is Back.....88
7 - Not by their fruits, but by their chowders. nt.....weatherdude.....86
8 - I wish I was sadistic enough to play on.....BoiseBlue.....86
9 - Thanks for this exposé of this horrendous.....Predictor.....84
10 - You've misread the diary, so I think it's worth.....pico.....83
11 - I don't care if his heart is in the right place,.....JesseCW.....79
12 - Gotta love America.....LaFeminista.....78
13 - And my comment is about people who look at........expatjourno.....77
14 - Thank you follow your bliss.....mka193.....75
15 - ..........GlowNZ.....69
16 - Love 'em to death. They hate it, and.....SpamNunn.....68
17 - It's time the citizens of this country made.....marabout40.....68
18 - If you'll take a piece of constructive criticism,.....pico.....65
19 - Buy your "christian" snake oil right here!.....marabout40.....65
20 - Thanks. "Can't see the forest for the trees".....NedSparks.....63
21 - You know what?.....ShadowSD.....62
22 - Would rec this 10 times if I could......janmtairy.....62
23 - I was being told by my peers in High School.....xxdr zombiexx.....61
24 - it's only diaries like this........kishik.....61
25 - Why You Lenny Bruce Potty Mouth, You!!!.....wbramh.....60
26 - When I heard them call it a "love gift".....weatherdude.....60
27 - **meow**.....LaFeminista.....60
28 - Go to a different website.....Jill Richardson.....59
29 - What a fantastic event.....govib.....59
30 - "love gift".....crystal eyes.....59
Top Mojo with No Exclusions:
1 - Tip Jar.....mka193.....394
2 - It's amazing how easy it is.....Jill Richardson.....374
3 - Tip Jar.....gjohnsit.....273
4 - Tip Jar.....dalfireplug.....221
5 - Tip Jar.....Clarknt67.....213
6 - I'm sick of the black and white (no pun.....followyourbliss.....177
7 - Tip Jar.....pico.....175
8 - Tip Jar.....bobswern.....171
9 - Tip Jar.....teacherken.....151
10 - Tip Jar.....DawnG.....145
11 - IF BP was serious about transparency.....8ackgr0und N015e.....144
12 - But if Obama does it, it must be right......expatjourno.....137
13 - Democratic leaders should be fighting for jobs.....FishOutofWater.....132
14 - Short-Sighted Liberals.....Kitty.....112
15 - Tips for Darrin Johnson.....FishOutofWater.....101
16 - Scritchie Jar.....triciawyse.....101
17 - Truth is: this diary isn't about Obama, at all........bobswern.....97
18 - Highlight this.....DanK Is Back.....88
19 - Tip Jar.....Mark H.....86
20 - Tip Jar I really need an explaination.....LaFeminista.....86
21 - Thanks for this exposé of this horrendous.....Predictor.....84
22 - You've misread the diary, so I think it's worth.....pico.....83
23 - Tips for noticing. :).....NCrissieB.....83
24 - Thank you to the Daily Kos community.....Gulf Watchers.....82
25 - I don't care if his heart is in the right place,.....JesseCW.....79
26 - Gotta love America.....LaFeminista.....78
27 - Although Caligula may be.....Frankenoid.....77
28 - And my comment is about people who look at........expatjourno.....77
29 - Thank you follow your bliss.....mka193.....75
30 - Tip Jar.....Vyan.....74