Frida Kahlo in Multimedia

Home , The Broken Column, The Two Fridas, The Wounded Table

Portrait of an Artist: Frida Kahlo (1983)

VHS Version Produced By: RM Arts/Hershon Guerra/WDR Production (1983) DVD Version Produced By: Art Haus Musik/Eila Hershon & Roberto Guerra (2009) Narrated By: Sada Thompson (Commentary by Hayden Herrera) Run Time: 62 min Language: VHS: English DVD: English, German, French, Spanish

Synopsis: This award-winning documentary (Montreal International Festival of Films - Best Biography of an Artist) provides a stirring look at the life and times of Mexico's most famous woman painter, Frida Kahlo. Although the film is old, with simple editing techniques, it eloquently portrays the artist's life in the famous "Blue House" outside of Mexico City that she shared with her husband, the famous muralist and painter Diego Rivera. A near fatal bus accident, years of traumatic surgery, and endless heartache left Frida Kahlo devastated, relentlessly transferring her physical and emotional pain to the canvas. Readings from her diaries, archival photographs, and film footage offer an intimate portrait of one of the most astonishing figures of the twentieth century. Narrated by Sada Thompson and commentary written by Hayden Herrera, this documentary explores Kahlo as the center of the Mexican renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s. Not just as an artist, but as a tragic figure as it follows her painting career, her growing interest in politics and her turbulent relationship with her husband, Diego.

Great Women Artists: Frida Kahlo (2001)

Film Produced By: Kultur International Films, Inc Run Time: 45 min Language: English

Synopsis: From the Back Cover: Frida Kahlo began to paint in 1925 while recovering from a streetcar accident that left her permanently disabled. Many of her 200 paintings, drawings and sketches are directly relate to her experiences with physical and emotional pain. They also chronicle her turbulent relationship with her womanizing husband, Diego Rivera. During her lifetime, Kahlo did not enjoy the same level of recognition as the great artists of Mexican muralism; Rivera, Orozco, and Siqueiros. However, today Kahlo's work is critically and monetarily as prized as that of her male peers, sometimes more so.

The Life and Death of Frida Kahlo (1966)

Film Produced By: Karen and David Crommie Starring: Friends and Associates of Frida Kahlo Run Time: 40 min Language: English (Some Spanish with Subtitles)

Synopsis: This is the extraordinary film that started it all: the original documentary that brought Frida Kahlo out from under the shadow of her husband, Diego Rivera, and into the glare of world recognition. Frida was flamboyant, outrageous, obsessed with the child she couldn't have and, above all, an artist who uniquely captured her life and emotions on canvas. Narrated by the eleven people who knew her best, the film traces a life that wavered on the cutting edge of art and politics during the 1930s. This film premiered at the San Francisco Film Festival in 1966 and was later shown nation wide in the early seventies. The original 16mm film is now available on video cassette and DVD but only directly from the film's producers:

Karen & David Crommie 628 Ashbury St. San Francisco, CA 94117 [email protected]

Frida - Naturaleza Viva

Produced By: Clasa World-wide Films (1984) Starring: Ofelia Medina as Frida and Juan Jose Gurrola as Diego Run Time: 108 min Language: Spanish with English Subtitles

Synopsis: This is the original full-length movie of the life of Frida Kahlo. The film was produced in Mexico and is said to be "The True Story"…an extraordinary realization by Director Paul Leduc of the life of Frida Kahlo, the most admired Mexican painter in the world. In this drama, Frida's life story is told in surreal deathbed flashbacks resembling her haunting paintings. The actress Ofelia Medina, who portrays Kahlo, bears not only an uncanny resemblance, but shares her mannerisms, her dignity and her feverish passion. Through Frida's eyes we get to know her relationship with the great muralist Diego Rivera, the Russian thinker Leon Trotsky and the intellectual and the artistic life of Mexico at the end of the 1940's. The main fault of this film is the lack of dialogue, so, if you are not already familiar with Frida Kahlo's life, it will be difficult to understand the plot.

The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo

Produced By: PBS Home Video Special (2005) Starring: Lila Downs (Voice of Frida Kahlo); Rita Moreno (Narrator) Run Time: 90 min Language: English (Some Spanish with subtitles)

Synopsis: Frida Kahlo was more than a great painter: She was at times a socialist, a communist, and a revolutionary. This documentary presents her extraordinary life as a reflection of her cultural history, her art and the times in which she lived. The film combines Kahlo's artwork with photographs, archival films and interviews.

This documentary is an intimate biography of a woman who gracefully balanced a private life of illness and pain against a public persona that was flamboyant, irreverent and world-renowned. Kahlo was an eyewitness to a unique pairing of revolution and renaissance that defined the times in which she lived. Through the prism of her life and art, this documentary film explores the ancient culture of Mexico; the Mexican Revolution; the wildfire of communism that burned through Latin America in the 1920s and '30s; the innovators in painting, photography, filmmaking, writing and poetry that congregated in Mexico City; and the revival of interest in popular culture for which Kahlo has become a symbol.

La Cinta Que Envuelve Una Bomba (The Ribbon That Ties the Bomb)

Produced By: Estudios Xystus (2003) Starring: Andrea Ferrari as the voice of Frida Run Time: 60 min Language: Spanish (with or without English subtitles)

Synopsis: Using rare, never-before-seen footage, family interviews, and photographs, this documentary explores the intimate details of the life of Frida Kahlo. This includes her turbulent relationship with Diego Rivera, her scandalous lesbian affairs, and the mastering of the art about her anguished life that made her famous.

Directed by Jesus Muñoz Delgado, with narration by Jose Lavat, the voice of Frida is Andrea Ferrari, and original music by Eugenio Tussaint. Among the people who are interviewed in this documentary are biographers Martha Zamora and Hayden Herrera, psychologist Anando Almazan, historians Teresa del Conde, and Olivier Debroise, journalist Ana Cecilia Trevino, and painter (and former Khalo student) Arturo Garcia Bustos.

Biography - Frida Kahlo

Produced By: A&E Home Video (2005) Run Time: 50 min Language: English

Synopsis:

From her birth in the ""Blue House"" to her death just 47 years later, BIOGRAPHY® explores the remarkable life of Frida Kahlo. See how she began to paint while convalescing from a horrific accident, and how she suffered from the consequences of her injuries throughout her life. See famed collections of her work, and hear from the people who knew her best, and those she inspired.

Frida Kahlo in Multimedia

Student: ______Date: ______Highlight skills at the level achieved to calculate grade for each student. 3-Exemplary 2-Proficient 1-Developing

Key Learnings: Knowledge & Understanding

* integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of a topic

* integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats as well as in words in order to address a question

Writing Skills

Content * engage and orient the reader with well developed writing

* successfully convey an accurate comprehension of the topic

Organization * create a logical sequence of ideas within a coherent whole

Style/Voice * use words, phrases and details appropriate to the writing’s purpose

* write in an engaging and consistent voice Grammar, * write and complete sentences with varied structures Language & Punctuation * correctly use an appropriate selection of punctuation

* use varied and appropriate vocabulary to advance purpose

21st Century Skills

Collaboration / * effectively participate in group and class discussions by speaking Participation and listening * present ideas orally, speaking clearly and at an understandable pace Communication * ask and answer questions in a discussion and make comments that link to those of others

Comments: Frida Kahlo in Multimedia

Mexican artist Frida Kahlo is remembered for her self-portraits, pain and passion, and bold, vibrant colors. 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, nearly died in a bus accident as a teenager. She suffered multiple fractures of her spine, collarbone and ribs, a shattered pelvis, broken foot and dislocated shoulder. She began to focus heavily on painting while recovering in a body cast. In her lifetime, she had 30 operations.

Life experience is a common theme in Kahlo's approximately 200 paintings, sketches and drawings. Her physical and emotional pain are depicted starkly on canvases, as is her turbulent relationship with her husband, fellow artist Diego Rivera, who she married twice. Of her 143 paintings, 55 are self-portraits.

The devastation to her body from the bus accident is shown in stark detail in The Broken Column. Kahlo is depicted nearly naked, split down the middle, with her spine presented as a broken decorative column. Her skin is dotted with nails. She is also fitted with a surgical brace.

Kahlo's first self-portrait was Self-Portrait in a Velvet Dress in 1926. It was painted in the style of 19th Century Mexican portrait painters who themselves were greatly influenced by the European Renaissance masters. She also sometimes drew from the Mexican painters in her use of a background of tied-back drapes. Self-Portrait - Time Flies (1929), Portrait of a a Woman in White (1930) and Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky (1937) all bear this background.

In her second-self portrait, "Time Flies," Kahlo uses a folk style and vibrant colors. She wears peasant clothing, and the red, white and green in the painting are the colors of the Mexican flag.

Frida and Diego: Love and Pain Kahlo and Rivera had a tumultuous relationship, marked by multiple affairs on both sides. Self-Portrait With Cropped Hair (1940), Kahlo is depicted in a man's suit, holding a pair of scissors, with her fallen hair around the chair in which she sits. This represents the times she would cut the hair Rivera loved when he had affairs.

The 1937 painting Memory, the Heart, shows Kahlo's pain over her husband's affair with her younger sister Christina. A large broken heart at her feet shows the intensity of Kahlo's anguish. Frido and Diego divorced in 1939, but reunited a year later and remarried. The Two Fridas (1939) depicts Kahlo twice, shortly after the divorce. One Frida wears a costume from the Tehuana region of Mexico, representing the Frida that Diego loved. The other Frida wears a European dress as the woman who Diego betrayed and rejected. Later, she is back in Tehuana dress in Self-Portrait as a Tehuana (1943) and Self Portrait (1948).

Pre-Columbian artifacts were common both in the Kahlo/Rivera home (Diego collected sculptures and idols, and Frido collected Jewelry) and in Kahlo's paintings. She wore jewelry from this period in "Self-Portrait -- Time Flies" (1926), Self-Portrait With Monkey (1938) and Self-Portrait With Braid (1941), among others. Other Pre-Columbian artifacts are found in The Four Inhabitants of Mexico City (1938), Girl With Death Mask (1938) and Self-Portrait With Small Monkeys (1945). Surreal Realist? Surrealist Andrew Breton considered Kahlo a surrealistic, a label Kahlo rejected, saying she painted her reality. She did, however, participate in the International Exhibition of Surrealism" in 1940 at the Galeria de Arte Mexicano; there, she exhibited her two largest paintings: The Two Fridas and The Wounded Table (1940).

Kahlo did not sell many paintings in her lifetime, although she painted occasional portraits on commission. She had only one solo exhibition in Mexico in her lifetime, in 1953, just a year before her death at the age of 47. My painting carries with it the message of pain." - Frida Kahlo Today, her works sell for very high prices. A 1929 self-portrait sold for more than $5 million in 1929. Her paintings earn more money than any other female artist.

At the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City, her personal belongings are on display throughout the house, as if she still lived there. Kahlo was born and grew up in this building, whose cobalt walls gave way to the nickname of the Blue House. She lived there with her husband for some years, and she died there. The facility is the most popular museum in the Coyoacan neighborhood and among the most visited in Mexico City.

Frida Kahlo Biography http://www.biography.com/people/frida-kahlo-9359496 Painter (1907–1954) “I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality.” —Frida Kahlo QUICK FACTS NAME Frida Kahlo OCCUPATION Painter BIRTH DATE July 6, 1907 DEATH DATE July 13, 1954 EDUCATION National Preparatory School PLACE OF BIRTH Mexico City, Mexico PLACE OF DEATH Mexico City, Mexico

Early Life Artist Frida Kahlo was born Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón on July 6, 1907, in Coyocoán, Mexico City, Mexico. Considered one of Mexico’s greatest artists, Frida Kahlo began painting after she was severely injured in a bus accident.

Kahlo grew up in the family’s home where she was born -- later referred as the Blue House or Casa Azul. Her father, Wilhelm (also called Guillermo), was a German photographer who had immigrated to Mexico where he met and married her mother Matilde. She had two older sisters, Matilde and Adriana, and her younger sister, Cristina, was born the year after Frida.

Around the age of 6, she contracted polio, which caused her to be bedridden for nine months. While she did recover from the illness, she limped when she walked because the disease had damaged her right leg and foot. Her father encouraged her to play soccer, go swimming, and even wrestle -- highly unusual moves for a girl at the time -- to help aid in her recovery.

Studies and Injury In 1922, Kahlo enrolled at the renowned National Preparatory School. She was one of the few female students to attend the school, and she became known for her jovial spirit and her love of traditional and colorful clothes and jewelry. That same year, famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera went to work on a project at the school. Kahlo often watched as Rivera created a mural called The Creation in the school’s lecture hall. According to some reports, she told a friend that she would someday have Rivera’s baby.

While at school, Kahlo hung out with a group of politically and intellectually like-minded students. She became romantically involved with one of them, Alejandro Gómez Arias. On September 17, 1925, Kahlo and Gómez Arias were traveling together on a bus when the vehicle collided with a streetcar. As a result of the collision, Kahlo was impaled by a steel handrail, which went into her hip and came out the other side. She suffered several serious injuries as a result, including fractures in her spine and pelvis.

After staying at the Red Cross Hospital in Mexico City for several weeks, Kahlo returned home to recuperate further. She began painting during her recovery and finished her first self-portrait the following year, which she gave to Gómez Arias. Becoming more politically active, Kahlo joined the Young Communist League and the Mexican Communist Party.

Tumultuous Marriage Kahlo reconnected with Rivera in 1928. He encouraged her artwork, and the two began a relationship. The couple married the next year. During their early years together, Kahlo often followed Rivera based on where the commissions that Rivera received were. In 1930, they lived in San Francisco, California, where Kahlo showed her painting Frieda and Diego Rivera at the Sixth Annual Exhibition of the San Francisco Society of Women Artists. They then went to New York City for Rivera’s show at the Museum of Modern Art and later moved to Detroit for Rivera’s commission with the Detroit Institute of Arts.

In 1932, Kahlo incorporated more graphic and surrealistic elements in her work. In her painting, Henry Ford Hospital (1932), a naked Kahlo appears on a hospital bed with several items -- a fetus, a snail, a flower, a pelvis and others -- floating around her connected to her by red, veinlike strings. As with her earlier self-portraits, the work was deeply personal, telling the story of her second miscarriage.

Kahlo and Rivera’s time in New York City in 1933 was surrounded by controversy. Commissioned by Nelson Rockefeller, Rivera created a mural entitled Man at the Crossroads in the RCA Building at Rockefeller Center. Rockefeller halted the work on the project after Rivera included a portrait of communist leader Vladimir Lenin in the mural, which was later painted over. Months after this incident, the couple returned to Mexico and went to live in San Angel, Mexico.

Never a traditional union, Kahlo and Rivera kept separate, but adjoining homes and studios in San Angel. She was saddened by his many infidelities, including an affair with her sister Cristina. In response to this familial betrayal, Kahlo cut off most of her trademark long dark hair. Desperately wanting to have a child, she again experienced heartbreak when she miscarried in 1934.

She and Rivera went through periods of separation, but they joined together to help exiled Soviet communist Leon Trotsky and his wife Natalia in 1937. The Trotskys came to stay with them at the Blue House for a time in 1937 as Trotsky had received asylum in Mexico. Once a rival of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, Trotsky feared that he would be assassinated by his old nemesis. Kahlo and Trotsky reportedly had a brief affair during this time.

Art and Self-Portraits While she never considered herself a Surrealist, Kahlo befriended one of the primary figures in that artistic and literary movement, Andre Breton, in 1938. That same year, she had a major exhibition at a New York City gallery, selling half of the 25 paintings shown there. Kahlo also received two commissions, including one from famed magazine editor Clare Boothe Luce, as a result of the show.

Kahlo was asked to paint a portrait of Luce and Kahlo's mutual friend, actress Dorothy Hale, who had committed suicide earlier that year by jumping from a high-rise building. The painting was intended as a gift for Hale's grieving mother. Rather than a traditional portrait, however, Kahlo painted the story of Hale's tragic leap. While the work, The Suicide of Dorothy Hale (1939), has been heralded by critics, its patron was horrified at the finished painting.

In 1939, Kahlo went to live in Paris for a time. There she exhibited some of her paintings and developed friendships such artists as Marcel Duchamp and Pablo Picasso. She divorced Rivera

later that year. During this time, she painted one of her most famous works, The Two Fridas (1939). The paintings shows two versions of the artist sitting side by side, with both of their hearts exposed. One Frida is dressed nearly all in white and has a damaged heart and spots of blood on her clothing. The other wears bold colored clothing and has an intact heart. These figures are believed to represent “unloved” and “loved” versions of Kahlo.

Oddly, Kahlo and Rivera did not stay divorced for long. They remarried in 1940, and yet the couple continued to lead largely separate lives. And both became involved with other people over the years.

Kahlo received a commission from the Mexican government for five portraits of important Mexican women in 1941, but she was unable to finish the project. She lost her beloved father that year and continued to suffer from chronic health problems. Despite her personal challenges, her work continued to grow in popularity and was included in numerous group shows around this time.

In 1944, Kahlo painted The Broken Column, which depicted a nearly nude Frida split down the middle revealing her spine as a shattered decorative column. She also wears a surgical brace and her skin is studded with tacks or nails. Again, Kahlo shared her physical challenges through her art. Around this time, she had several surgeries and wore special corsets to try to fix her back. She would continue to seek a variety of treatments for her chronic physical pain with little success.

Deteriorating Health and Death Her health issues became nearly all-consuming in 1950. After being diagnosed with gangrene in her right foot, Kahlo spent nine months in the hospital and had several operations during this time. She continued to paint and support political causes despite having limited mobility. In 1953, Kahlo received her first solo exhibition in Mexico. She may have been bedridden at the time, but she did not miss out on the exhibition’s opening. Arriving by ambulance, Kahlo spent the evening talking and celebrating with the event’s attendees from the comfort of a four-poster bed set up in the gallery just for her. Kahlo’s joy was dampened a few months later when part of her right leg was amputated to stop the spread of gangrene.

Deeply depressed, Kahlo was hospitalized again in April 1954 because of poor health, or, as some reports indicated, a suicide attempt. She returned to the hospital two months later with bronchial pneumonia. No matter her physical condition, Kahlo did not let that stand in the way of her political activism. Her final public appearance was a demonstration against the U.S.-backed overthrow of President Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala on July 2. About a week after her 47th birthday, Kahlo died on July 13 at her beloved Blue House. There has been some speculation regarding the nature of her death. It was reported to be caused by a pulmonary embolism, but there have also been stories about a possible suicide.

Artistic Legacy Since her death, Kahlo’s fame as an artist has only grown. Her beloved Blue House was opened as a museum in 1958. The feminist movement of the 1970s led to renewed interest in her life and work, as Kahlo was viewed by many as an icon of female creativity. In 1983, Hayden Herrera’s book on the artist, A Biography of Frida Kahlo, also helped to stir up interest this great artist. More recently, her life was the subject of a 2002 film entitled Frida, starring Salma Hayek as the artist and Alfred Molina as Diego Rivera. Directed by Julie Taymor, the film was nominated for six Academy Awards and won for Best Makeup and Original Score.

Frida Kahlo in Multimedia

Name: ______

Look at the journal excerpts from Kahlo. Note the titles and the dates.

1. What do they say about the woman?

2. How do the pages reflect her life?

3. What do they say about the world in which she lived?

4. What can you tell about her perspective as an artist?

5. Based on the journal, who is Frida Kahlo, how does she feel, and what would you say about her?

6. How does the journal compare to the photographic portraits and Kahlo’s self- portraits?

Frida Kahlo in Multimedia

Frida Kahlo began painting in 1925 after a bus accident left her bedridden for several months, and a semi-invalid for the remainder of her life. Throughout her short life she experienced immense physical and emotional pain, not only because of the accident but also because of what she often referred to as her second ‘accident’—her husband Diego Rivera.1 Kahlo was a fierce nationalist, and felt a strong connection with her Mexican heritage. Her political beliefs, cultural heritage and suffering feature throughout her artworks. Critics have come to believe that Kahlo sought to externalise and distance her pain through her art. When engaging with Kahlo’s work it becomes obvious to onlookers that they were experiencing her painted autobiography. Pieces such as Self- Portrait (1948),Henry Ford Hospital (1932), My Dress Hangs Here (1933), and The Two Fridas (1939) are all significant works that commemorate events and emotions felt by Kahlo, and represent the autobiographical nature of her work.

Frida Kahlo had not intended to become an artist. As a child she had dreamt of becoming a doctor. However in 1925, as the result of the horrific bus accident, Kahlo’s spinal column was broken in three places along with her collarbone, two ribs, right leg and foot. Her pelvis was fractured and her left shoulder dislocated. A steel rod pierced her hip and exited through her vagina, complicating her future attempts to have children. As a result of the accident, Kahlo was encased in a plaster cast, which confined her to bed for several months.2 The boredom of her restriction was the catalyst for her art. Her mother had a special easel built to fit around her bed, which allowed her to paint lying down. She began painting the only subjects available to her in her confinement: her friends, family and herself. While Kahlo began painting to combat boredom, it soon became an outlet she relied on to enable her to express her beliefs and feelings. She explained: ‘I paint my own reality. The only thing that I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration’.3 Kahlo explained that her paintings

* Stacey Little is in her second year of a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Laws degree at the Australian National University. She is a current resident of Bruce Hall. 1 Martha Zamora, Frida Kahlo: The Brush of Anguish (1990) 37. 2 Hayden Herrera, Frida Kahlo: The Paintings (2002) 35. 3 Hayden Herrera, Frida Kahlo: The Paintings (2002) 4.

32 Cross-sections | Volume V 2009 were predominantly self-portraits because she was so often alone, and in addition was quoted as having said, ‘I am the person I know best’.4 Her self-portraits alone can be considered autobiographical as they often formed an alternate self that shared and reflected her feelings.5 Throughout the series of portraits her gaze remains steady, staring out to the viewer, imploring us to engage and understand her. She depicts herself upright and strong, as if they were painted to confirm her tenuous hold on life.6 According to Rupert Gracia, Kahlo’s paintings, particularly her self-portraits were ‘clever and skilful depictions that simultaneously mask and reveal her unbearable pain of the body and spirit’.7 He believed that many of her paintings vividly represent her personal crises. This is particularly true for Self-portrait, 1948 (figure 1), in which she is wearing a Tehuana headdress. Kahlo began developing her authentically Mexican style in the first years of her marriage8 to reflect several values that were important to her; however she also wore traditional costume to please her husband. The headdress can be seen as a plea for Rivera’s love, but she appears too overdressed; the finery is a mask.9 The lace is jagged, stiff and closed in, making her appear trapped in the space. According to Herrera, the greater Kahlo’s pain, whether emotional or physical, the more desperately festive her adornments became.10 The three tears staining her cheek could represent the years of pain caused by her longing for Rivera’s love, particularly on the occasions he strayed. Relying on her mirror for comfort and

4 Herrera, above n 2, 3. 5 Hayden Herrera, Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo (1983) 61. 6 Hayden Herrera, ‘Frida Kahlo’s: The Poetics of Self’ in Elizabeth Carpenter (ed), Frida Kahlo (2007) 56. 7 Rupert Garcia, Frida Kahlo: A Bibliography and Biographical Introduction (1983) 5. 8 Rebecca Block & Lynda Hoffman-Jeep, ‘Fashioning National Identity: Frida Kahlo in “Gringolandia”’ (1999) 19(12) Womens Art Journal 10. 9 Herrera, above n 2, 170. 10 Ibid. Figure 1. Self-portrait, 1948. Oil on masonite, 19” x 15.5”.

Frida Kahlo: A Life in Painting | Stacey Little 33 companionship of her alternate self, Kahlo became a voyeur of her own grief, painting the griever and the observer.11 Kahlo’s inability to have children was perhaps the most distressing of her personal crises and was therefore depicted in several of her works, along with the obverse theme of fertility. Henry Ford Hospital of 1932 (figure 2) effectively depicts a significant event in the artist’s life, and conveys the emotional turmoil Kahlo experienced during the ordeal. Kahlo’s deformed pelvis allowed conception, however prevented her from bringing a child to term. She underwent several abortions and miscarriages, the most traumatic of which occurred in 1932 when the artist was living in Detroit whilst Rivera was working on a commission. After three and a half months of pregnancy, Kahlo haemorrhaged and was rushed to Henry Ford Hospital.12

Figure 2. Henry Ford Hospital, 1932. Oil on metal, 12.25” x 15.5”.

In the painting, Kahlo lies naked on a hospital bed, bleeding onto a sheet. A tear runs down her cheek and her stomach still bulges from the failed pregnancy. Six red ribbons are held to her stomach, suggesting they are umbilical cords. At the end of each floats an object symbolic of her emotions at the time of the miscarriage. In the centre is a male foetus; representing the young boy she had hoped for. Kahlo based this image on medical illustrations procured by Rivera whilst she was still in hospital, as she wanted to accurately depict what she had lost.13 Next to

11 Herrera, above n 2, 171. 12 Ibid, 68. 13 Ibid, 72.

34 Cross-sections | Volume V 2009 the foetus is a pink female abdomen, which Kahlo explained was her ‘idea of explaining the insides of a woman’.14 The snail is said to have referred to the slowness of the miscarriage and the orchid is reminiscent of an extracted uterus. According to Herrera, the machine is an autoclave, a device for sterilising surgical instruments. This was invented ‘to explain the mechanical part of the whole business’.15 Kahlo was not impressed by modern industry and felt that machines represented ‘bad luck and pain’.16 The remaining object appears to be a backbone and pelvis, her damaged back and pelvis the principal cause for her inability to give birth.

Kahlo and the bed seem to float within a void, disconnected from the rest of the world. On the distant horizon is the Rouge River Complex, where Rivera was busy preparing his murals. The faraway buildings ‘evoke the patient’s perception of the outer world’s indifference to her plight, her feeling of separation from everyday life’.17 Disjunctions in scale and the way the bed is tipped up in intentionally incorrect perspective add to the impression of disconnection and helplessness.18 The Broken Column of 1944 (figure 3) is another piece by Kahlo depicting her immense pain. However, in this case her back, and the brace she was forced to wear after surgery cause the pain. In this painting Kahlo is again depicted in a bleak, dream-like landscape, representing an externalised expression of her inner desolation.19 The personal subject matter and obvious pain and discomfort felt by Kahlo in both pieces highlights the autobiographical nature of her work.

14 Herrera, above n 2, 73. 15 Ibid. 16 Ibid. 17 Herrera, above n 5, 145. 18 Herrera, above n 2, 70. 19 Herrera, above n 5, 75. Figure 3. The Broken Column, 1944. Oil on masonite, 15.75” x 12.25”.

Frida Kahlo: A Life in Painting | Stacey Little 35

While Kahlo often used her painting to externalise both her physical and emotional pain, she also depicted her political alliances and her Mexican heritage. According to Garcia: ‘painting and socio-political engagement were both of great importance for Kahlo. Since a youth she was continuously politically conscious and involved, at various levels, in leftist issues.20 Kahlo’s distaste for capitalism is highlighted in My Dress Hangs There of 1933 (figure 4) in which she depicts a leftist view of Manhattan, the centre of capitalism.

Figure 4. My Dress Hangs There, 1933. Oil and collage on masonite, 18” x 19.75”.

In the top centre of the painting stands Federal Hall, Kahlo’s symbol of capitalism. The building is linked to a Gothic church via a red ribbon, suggestive of a vital vein or artery. In the window of the church a red ‘S’ transforms the crucifix in to a dollar sign. Alongside the church is another representation of false values—a billboard of Mae West, who conjures up connotations of vanity and luxury. To the artist her appeal is ephemeral;21 the edges of the billboard are peeling and the buildings below her are burning.

The steps of Federal Hall are presided over by a statue of George Washington, a representative of the idealism of the past. Instead of a set of marble stairs Kahlo has pasted a graph showing ‘Weekly Sales in

20 Garcia, above n 7, 14. 21 Herrera, above n 5, 175.

36 Cross-sections | Volume V 2009

Millions’, which is juxtaposed with a collage effect at the bottom of the canvas. Pictures of military parades and political protesters form the masses, and embody those who are working for, but not benefiting from the economy. Kahlo mocks the North American preoccupation with efficient plumbing and sport by placing a toilet and sports trophy on giant pedestals made from classical columns in the foreground. It is the blue cord held up by the two objects from which Kahlo’s Mexican Tehuana costume hangs. By hanging her dress empty, Kahlo is making the statement that whilst she may reside in the United States, her heart is not in it; she wants nothing to do with the capitalist ‘Gringolandia’.22 The colourful and festive costume is contrasted on all sides by endless bleak, blank and anonymous office blocks and skyscrapers. One of the buildings forms a perch for an oversized telephone, the cord of which links the other blank buildings, highlighting the impersonal nature of the capitalist society. In the foreground, a bin is full of empty bottles, entrails, bones and a human hand—a comment on the ‘human waste and wasted human beings in a capitalist society’.23 In the background stands the Statute of Liberty, a satirical reminder of what the United States was meant to stand for.24

In 1939 Kahlo and Rivera were divorced. In a letter to friend Nickolas Muray, Kahlo wrote; ‘I feel so rotten and lonely that it seems to me that nobody in the world has suffer [sic] the way I do’.25 Kahlo began painting vigorously during the divorce period to express her inner pain. According to Garcia, Kahlo’s ‘apparent obsession with and bitter delight in pain and dejection seen in The Two Fridas (figure 5) was possibly her skilful way of symbolically confronting and freeing herself of these tribulations’.26 Kahlo admitted to a close friend that The Two Fridas recorded her unhappiness at being separated from Rivera.27 In the painting the two Fridas sit side-by-side clasping hands. On the left, Frida is depicted wearing European clothing; the Frida Rivera did not love, whilst on the right she is adorned in a Tehuana skirt and blouse, representing the Frida Rivera did love. Each suggests Kahlo’s dual heritage; part German and part Indian. Both hearts are exposed using the same literal device to show her pain in love as used in other works such as Memory (1937). However, the heart of the loved Frida is whole, whereas the lace bodice of the other is torn to reveal a broken heart. The stronger, Tehuana Frida is holding a miniature picture of Diego Rivera as a boy, which represents her lost husband. Exiting from its frame is a red vein that loops around her arm, through her heart and connects

22 Herrera, above n 5, 174. 23 Ibid. 24 Ibid, 175. 25 Herrera, above n 2, 134. 26 Garcia, above n 7, 5. 27 Herrera, above n 2, 135.

Frida Kahlo: A Life in Painting | Stacey Little 37 across to the other Frida’s heart and eventually the unloved Frida attempts to stem the flow of blood with a pair surgical pincers. The flow cannot be stopped however, and the blood spills onto her skirt. Some of the flowers on the hem of the skirt have been replaced by splatters of blood. The red blood contrasted on the white skirt is reminiscent of the Henry Ford Hospital scene and evokes memories of miscarriage and countless surgeries.

Figure 5. The Two Fridas, 1939. Oil on canvas, 67” x 67”.

Both faces remain calm and impassive, both a testament to Kahlo’s strength, and a poised depiction that would serve to comfort Kahlo through the period of turmoil. The defiant Fridas are set against a turbulent sky, rent with dark and menacing clouds, which are representative of their inner turmoil. As in Henry Ford Hospital, the figures are disconnected from the vast space in which they are depicted, rendering The Two Fridas a dramatisation of Kahlo’s loneliness. Kahlo’s only companion is herself; the doubling of herself serves to further emphasise her aloneness.

In conclusion, Frida Kahlo’s art is autobiographical in nature. She painted to express and externalise her inner pain, in a way that would allow her to distance herself from it. Her pain is evident in many of her works, in particular, Henry Ford Hospital, The Broken Column and several of her self-portraits. Not only does Kahlo depict her pain, but she expresses her political beliefs and the strong connection she felt with her Mexican heritage, as seen in My Dress Hangs There among others. It is the way in which Kahlo openly conveys her personal messages and feelings that renders her work autobiographical. By studying her paintings one can experience Frida Kahlo’s life, her trials and tribulations, as well as her values, and beliefs.

https://eview.anu.edu.au/cross-sections/vol5/pdf/03.pdf

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References

1. Articles/Books/Reports: Arnason, Harvard H, A History Of Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Photography(4th ed, 1998) Block,Rebecca and Lynda Hoffman-Jeep, ‘Fashioning National Identity: Frida Kahlo in ‘Gringolandia’’ (1999) 19(12) Womens Art Journal8-12 Garcia, Rupert, Frida Kahlo: A Bibliography and Biographical Introduction (1983) Herrera, Hayden, Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo (1983) Herrera, Hayden, Frida Kahlo: The Paintings (2002) Herrera, Hayden, ‘Frida Kahlo’s: The Poetics of Self’ in Elizabeth Carpenter (ed), Frida Kahlo(2007) Kahlo, Frida, Carlos Fuentes etal, The Diary of Frida Kahlo : an Intimate Self-Portrait (2005) Thomson, Rosemarie Garland,Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature(1997) Tobey, Cheryl, ‘The Latin Explosion’(2004) 26(3) Performance Art Journal72-77 Zamora, Martha, Frida Kahlo: The Brush of Anguish (1990) 37 2. Other Sources: Kahlo, Frida, Henry Ford Hospital (1932) California Literary Review at 5 November 2008 Kahlo, Frida, My Dress Hangs There (1933) Mystudios at 5 November 2008

40 Cross-sections | Volume V 2009 Kahlo, Frida, The Broken Column (1944) Taos Art School at 5 November 2008 Kahlo, Frida, The Two Fridas (1939) Wordpress at 5 November 2008 Kahlo, Frida, Self Portrait (1948) Art is Joy at 5 November 2008 Time Magazine, Mexican Autobiography(27 April 1953) Time Magazine at 1 November 2008

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