Known for her prominent eyebrows, Frida Kahlo, one of the most prominent Mexican artists both in her time and after her death painted many self-portraits, that typically had the ability to depict the emotional state of her wellbeing. She was not afraid to dig deep and scratch under the surface and brought to life the adversities/ the everyday life the lower class went through in the numerous amounts of paintings she created.The first piece being displayed in the museum, is a photograph of an adolescent Frida Kahlo back in the year of 1919. The photograph is in black and white, so it is a little dull at first glance. With further inspection of the image, one can see that it is torn on the far-right side, with splotches of red of the left side of the image. She has noticeably short hair and a doe eyed look on her face, which can signify her innocence, due to her youthfulness. She also has a bow tie at the top of her head, with a wooden necklace around her neck. And what seems to be the contemporary clothing of that time. Being that the image is just a photograph, I do not think it would be any different to view it in the actual gallery than virtually, because I can see all points of this photograph, and the significance of it to see the artists in her younger days, which can have a prominent role in the shaping of her art she created throughout her lifetime. I selected this particular artwork because one, it is the first thing you will see upon entrance into the museum. And two, it just gives us insight into the artist that will be explored in the museum as well.
The second piece I decided to choose from at the museum is the clothes in Frida’s collection. It shows us the contemporary pieces at the time, and the cultural aspect of the clothing pieces, being that Kahlo is a Mexican born native. The colors are very vibrant and lively, with the use of some embroidery, and also some lace at the bottom hemming of the skirts. There are also many patterns on the clothing pieces with other material attached to it. We can also see the corsets that Frida wore at the time. It is very neutral in color, brown, and looks very sturdy like it is made from wood. I would rather be in the museum to view the clothing pieces to get the full effect of it, so I can view it from all angles and just take everything that it has to offer in. Also, I chose this artwork to give a glimpse into Frida in her younger days and what she wore.The third piece of artwork I chose from this collection is “Frida the Cesarean (Unfinished).” Like stated in the beginning, Frida is not foreign to creating portraits of her emotional wellbeing or the state that she is in, and in this case, it was the fact that she could not conceive. She tried many times, but the artist was met with the severe hardship of childbirth, and many times lost her baby.
The painting is not very vibrant, the colors do not jump out at you at all. It looks very earthy in tone, with the usage of minimalist colors. One could suggest that since the painting is a bit dull, it could mean that she is sad or depressed about the situation we see in the painting. We can also see that there is a man behind the woman laying down, and this could suggest that is her husband, Diego Rivera. This piece of work was meant to be in the Museo Frida Kahlo, being that it is dedicated to her. Lastly the viewer is meant to stand in front of the image, because the painting does not have multiple viewpoints from where you can draw different understandings from. I chose this particular artwork, because it gives us a glimpse into the artist’s life and what she went through, and once again it also reveals the emotion that she evoked in the many paintings she created.
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The fourth and last piece of artwork I decided to choose is the “Self Portrait Wearing a Velvet Dress.” This is one of Kahlo’s very first self-portrait paintings, so we can kind of see the progress of her work overtime. The colors of the piece are vibrant, there does not appear to be any use of abstract art. Everything is straight to the point. At a first glance, we can see Frida in front of the ocean and there seems to be waves behind her. It looks like the painting was also created to place the setting at nighttime. Everything looks very symmetrical and balanced, although we can see that her head is slightly turned to the side. Also, one significant thing about this painting is that everything appears to be in motion. We can see that there is a cloud on the far left side of the image cut in half, and the waves of the ocean is both pointing and moving towards the left side of the painting. The only thing that appears to be still in this painting, is Kahlo. It is said that according to Kahlo, the sea is meant to be a symbol of life.
The artwork overall looks like everything flows well together and it is smooth. I chose this piece because you can really see her progression over time with these self-portraits, being that this is the very first one that she created. Overtime her artwork turned into one that symbolized what she was going through and exemplified the pain of her marriage life and family life. My experience with the virtual museum was interesting, I really enjoyed it. There were a few minor setbacks, like not being able to look at the clothing pieces up close and really assess the different patterns and work that went into it. The website is user friendly, it was not hard to navigate my way through it, also you can zoom into majority of the pieces to analyze it more thoroughly. The reason I chose this museum is because I really do find the works of Frida Kahlo interesting, ever since I wrote about it on the last exam. I love her passion and dedication to art because it tends to have the ability to evoke the emotion that she, herself felt at the time. And it is beautiful in the sense that art itself can really reveal the hidden emotions underneath without the use of words.
