Frida Kahlo and her wonderful works of surrealism. Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) was considered to be a women of surrealism. She was a popular artist for a “Hispanic” female at the time, and now after her death she is world know and celebrated, she even has a motion picture out about her life and also numerous documentaries. In the majority of her work she painted herself. She showed everyone the “Hispanic” in her art by painting what she was use to and who she was, more than a third of her paintings are self portraits.
A strong admiring aspect about Frida Kahlo is she was an artist for herself, not for anyone else. Her people and the 20th century Mexico and her husband who was also a artists influenced her. Some people find Frida Kahlo’s artwork offensive, for example The Broken Column, 1944 due to the rawness she portrays. People find these piece amongst others offensive because it is a portrait of her self, which some critics view as conceded and others find her paintings to be crude. Frida Kahlo did not intend them to be viewed that way, she was expressing how she felt on the inside in the paintings of her self. She suffered many sorrows in her life including terminal illness from an accident and repeated miscarriages. In The Humanistic Tradition by Gloria K. Fiero it states that:
“Kahlo’s canvases betray her close identification. With Mexican folk culture and folk art, which. Traditionally features visceral and diabolical details.”(Pg.45,Fiero)
In the Broken Column (1944) Kahlo displays self as a martyr, a suffer and a savior which recalls “the devotional icons of Mexico’s religious shrines.”(Pg.45, Fiero) She painted herself for her “Hispanic” in her art. She did this for her self to be recognized as a “Hispanic Female” artist, but also an artists that regardless of race or sex, had enormous talent. Her paintings are so powerful and moving due to the fact that she drawls on her personal experiences and puts them into her work, she makes herself the art and the art herself.
Endnotes: Fiero, Gloria K. The Humanistic Tradition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002. The Documentary that was shown in class, I had many notes from that film.
