Lena Rivera
Frida Kahlo is one of the most famous painters in the world, celebrated for her evocative and introspective works. Her paintings are renowned for their emotional depth, symbolism, and personal narratives. They often revolve around two major events in her life: her divorce from fellow artist Diego Rivera and a nearly fatal accident she survived as a teenager. Some of her most famous paintings include The Two Fridas, Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, The Broken Column, The Wounded Deer, Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair, Moses, Without Hope, Tree of Hope, Stand Fast, and The Wounded Table.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| First self-portrait | Self-Portrait in a Velvet Dress (1926) |
| Second self-portrait | Time Flies (1929) |
| Third self-portrait | Dedicated to Leon Trotsky (1937) |
| Other self-portraits | Self-Portrait on the Borderline between Mexico and the United States (1932), Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair, Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird |
| Other paintings | The Two Fridas (1939), Henry Ford Hospital (1932), Girl with Death Mask (1938), Flor de la Vida, Frieda and Diego Rivera (1931), Moses (1945), My Birth |
| Themes | Grief, love, identity, motherhood, female experience, femininity, duality, Mexican identity, heritage, ancestry, colonialism, revolution, surrealism |
| Style | Bold, vibrant colours, symbolism, surrealism |
| Auction record | Roots sold for $5.62 million in 2006 |
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What You'll Learn
Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird
Frida Kahlo is one of the few female painters to be world-famous. She is celebrated in Mexico for her attention to Mexican and indigenous culture and by feminists for her depiction of the female experience and form. Kahlo, who suffered from polio as a child, was also involved in a bus accident as a teenager that left her seriously injured. She began to paint while bedridden, focusing heavily on self-portraits. Most of her work consists of self-portraits, which deal directly with her struggles with medical issues, infertility, and emotional pain.
One of her most famous paintings is the 'Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird' (Autorretrato con Collar de Espinas y Colibrí), a 1940 self-portrait that includes a black cat, a monkey, and two dragonflies. The painting was created after Kahlo's divorce from Diego Rivera and the end of her affair with photographer Nickolas Muray, who bought the portrait shortly after it was painted. The painting is part of the Nickolas Muray collection at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.
The painting depicts Kahlo in a frontal position, directly confronting the viewer's gaze from the canvas with leaves behind her. Her bold eyebrows hold the emphasis on her face, as a thorn necklace wraps around her throat, trailing down her chest. She is surrounded by insects and animals, setting the scene of a lush, but suffocatingly dense jungle. A spider monkey sits behind her right shoulder, playing with the thorn necklace, while a black cat with striking ice blue eyes peers up from the foliage over her left shoulder. Above her head, two dragonflies float in mid-air, above two butterfly clips nesting in the elaborate hairstyle that crowns her head.
The thorn necklace has been interpreted as a symbol of the enduring pain Kahlo experienced due to her medical issues and emotional struggles. The dead hummingbird, which is considered a good luck charm for falling in love in Mexican folklore, may represent lost love or hope. Alternatively, the hummingbird pendant could be a symbol of Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of war. Through the use of powerful iconography from indigenous Mexican culture, Kahlo positions herself in a tradition of rebellion against colonial forces and male rule.
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The Two Fridas
Frida Kahlo is one of the few female painters to be world-famous. She is celebrated in Mexico for her attention to Mexican and indigenous culture and by feminists for her depiction of the female experience and form. Kahlo is widely considered a skilled surrealist, but she rejected the notion that her works portrayed anything but her own reality. Exploring themes such as grief, love, and identity, she is now recognized as one of the most revered figures in contemporary art.
"The Two Fridas", painted in 1939, is one of her most recognized works. It is a double self-portrait, depicting two versions of Kahlo seated together, holding hands and sharing a bench in front of a stormy sky. One interpretation of the painting is that it reflects her Mexican and German heritage. The two Fridas are dressed differently: one in traditional Mexican attire and the other in a European-style dress. The Mexican Frida holds a miniature portrait of her husband Diego Rivera, while the European Frida holds forceps, with blood spilling onto her white dress from a broken blood vessel that the forceps have cut.
Another interpretation is that the painting represents the emotional state following her separation from her husband, Diego Rivera. The Fridas are identical except in their attire, which was a poignant issue for Kahlo at this time. She had embraced attire rooted in Mexican customs with the encouragement of Rivera, whom she married in 1929. They divorced in 1939, the same year she painted "The Two Fridas", although they remarried a year later.
The vein connecting the two Fridas symbolizes that, despite their differences, they are both the same person. One interpretation is that they represent two separate personalities, but they could also indicate the constant pain that Kahlo was going through. The two figures, one weak and one strong, reflect the impact of the tragic motor accident that left her disabled and unable to bear children. The stormy sky filled with agitated clouds may reflect Frida's inner turmoil.
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Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair
Frida Kahlo is one of the few female painters to achieve worldwide fame. She is celebrated for her attention to Mexican and indigenous culture and by feminists for her depiction of the female experience and form. Kahlo is also known for her self-portraits, which explore themes of pain, love, identity, and duality.
One of Kahlo's most famous self-portraits is "Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair", painted in 1940 after her divorce from fellow artist Diego Rivera. In this portrait, Kahlo depicts herself wearing an oversized men's suit and a crimson shirt, possibly belonging to Rivera. She has cut off her long hair, which Rivera loved, and holds a lock of her hair in her left hand, with a pair of scissors in her right. Strands of her hair surround her in the empty space, and she seems to shrink into it, minimising herself as she minimises her femininity. The empty space also contrasts with her typical self-portraits, which are filled with bold, colourful expressions.
The verse of a song is painted across the top of the portrait, alluding to the reason behind her act of self-mutilation:
> See, if I loved you, it was for your hair, now you
Kahlo had previously worn the traditional Mexican Tehuana dress, beloved by Rivera, but with her new haircut, she also adopted a new wardrobe, wearing men's suits. The only thing she kept as a feminine decoration was her earrings. This self-portrait expressed her desire to be independent and not rely on men.
Kahlo's self-portraits were not merely depictions of herself but also served as a means to explore her identity and empower herself. Through her art, she confronted societal norms and gender roles, inviting multiple interpretations and reflecting her struggles.
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The Wounded Deer
Frida Kahlo is one of the few female painters to be world-famous. She is celebrated for her attention to Mexican and indigenous culture and by feminists for her depiction of the female experience and form. Kahlo is also known for her self-portraits, bold, vibrant colours, and exploration of themes such as grief, love, identity, physical pain, and emotional torment.
One of her most famous paintings is "The Wounded Deer", created in 1946. In this painting, Kahlo depicts herself as a hybrid of a human and a deer, with the body of a deer and antlers extending from her head. The deer stands with its front right leg elevated, as if injured or in motion. Nine arrows protrude from the deer's body, causing wounds and blood flow. The painting is set in a forest, with nine trees on the right of the deer and a broken branch in the foreground. The sky is bright, but a bolt of lightning strikes down from a white cloud. The word "carma" (karma) is written in the bottom left corner of the painting, along with the artist's signature and the year. The painting is mostly rendered in green, brown, and grey tones, with small amounts of blue and red.
"The Wounded Deer" has been interpreted in multiple ways. Some believe it expresses Kahlo's frustration over a botched surgery or her inability to control her destiny. Others have suggested it has sexual implications or reflects her struggles in different relationships, such as her tumultuous marriage to Diego Rivera. The broken branch in the painting is significant in Mexican tradition, often placed on a grave as an acknowledgement of the artist's deteriorating health. The antlers on Kahlo's head are those of a stag, a male deer, representing herself as part male and part female, as well as a combination of human and animal features.
Kahlo's use of the deer as a symbol is influenced by pre-Columbian ideas and traditions. In this belief system, days were represented by symbols and numbers, and important dates were used for predictions. Kahlo adopted the deer as a personal symbol because of its connection to the right foot and her birth date in the Aztec calendar. The number nine, considered a symbol of earthly elements and the underworld, appears twice in the painting: in the nine trees and the nine arrows.
"The Wounded Deer" is a powerful depiction of Kahlo's physical and emotional pain, conveying the complexities of her experiences and relationships. Through this hybrid form, she invites viewers to observe her inner strength and resilience in the face of suffering.
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The Broken Column
Frida Kahlo is one of the few female painters to be world-famous. She is celebrated for her attention to Mexican and indigenous culture and by feminists for her depiction of the female experience and form. Kahlo is widely considered a skilled surrealist, although she rejected the notion that her works were surrealist, claiming that she "never painted dreams" but instead "painted [her] own reality".
One of her most famous paintings is 'The Broken Column' (La Columna Rota in Spanish), painted in 1944. This was shortly after she had spinal surgery to correct ongoing problems resulting from a bus accident when she was 18. The original is housed at the Museo Dolores Olmedo in Xochimilco, Mexico City, Mexico.
The painting depicts Kahlo alone, standing against a cracked and barren landscape. Her nude torso is split, revealing a crumbling Ionic column in place of her spine. The landscape symbolizes her isolation, while the fissures reflect the way her body was broken by the accident. The column in the painting is near-shattering, keeping her head held high and her body straight, like a spine. The brace, which holds her damaged body together, has been interpreted as a symbol of the physical and social restrictions of her life. The tears falling from her eyes have been described as "almost sculptural".
In this painting, Kahlo confronts the viewer with her pain, conveying the complexities of living with chronic pain. This work is considered a powerful tool in understanding the intangible feeling of chronic pain.
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