Frida Káhlo is a Mexican painter who was born on Coyoacan’s shores in 1907. Her work has been praised by many. Her art can only best be described as expressive and powerful. Her art became her escape from a painful life. Marxists and supporters of Stalin, Kahlo’s political views can be seen in her artwork. Looking at Frida’s work is like being immersed in a strangely beautiful, yet tumultuous, intoxication of emotions. It’s as if you’re in her shoes, experiencing her life, struggles and ideas.
Frida was born in Mexico to a Mexican-German father. She grew up there with her family. After contracting polio when she was six years old, Kahlo missed several months of school. She was bullied at school because of her deformed right leg. Frida’s father encouraged her sports activities to overcome her disability. Frida took up wrestling, swimming and boxing among others. The fact that Frida was encouraged to do these unusual sports at a young age shows her unique upbringing. She would later develop many feminist traits. She was among the first female students at the National Preparatory School. It was also here that she met Diego Rivera, her future spouse.
She had a life-changing accident in 1925. She was injured by being impaled on a steel handrail following a collision between the streetcar and the bus in which she was riding. Her injuries included a broken collarbone, pelvis and ribs. After spending several weeks in hospital, she had to stay at home in bed for months in order to recover. She began to paint her first self portrait at this time. She returned to her friends after recovering and became politically active. She then joined the Mexican Communist Party. Frida’s political and health issues were a major influence on her work. Her life is evident when you look at her works. Every painting reflects her essence; her beliefs, her feelings, and her personality.
She married Diego Rivera in 1929 and traveled to the United States with him, as he was given a commission. Leon Trotsky – an exiled Russian Revolution leader and communist – found refuge at The Blue House. Frida sided him with his anti Stalinist campaign. Frida writes in a letter that she has become “more and… more convinced that only communism will allow us to become human.” Frida is an independent person who may not understand why she supports communism. It can seem like communism takes away individuality from people, forcing them to live the same life. Frida opposed capitalism, because it was impersonal and shaped society in a cold, gray way. It also treated the lower class unfairly. In the 1930s there was a hate-filled campaign directed against intellectuals, artists and writers. This forced many of them to flee Mexico. Frida went to America, where she lived with other artists for a couple of years.
Many intellectuals assumed that Stalin’s crime were no longer relevant after World War II. Frida attended what were called peace movements at the time, but which were actually Stalinist events. Frida wasn’t just patriotic, she also took pride in Mexican clothing and art. She created many paintings that depicted her concern for Mexican politics. Frida Kahlo stands between the industrialized United States of America and a primitive Mexico on her “Self Portrait in the Border Line” painting. It is clear that this painting is a critique of capitalism as well as the replacement of nature by machines. The Mexican side also has a head and a shrine, as well as a bleeding-sun sky. It represents the efforts of the natives in building and maintaining their culture. The painting “My Dress Hangs There”, according to many, is a direct attack on American capitalism. It depicts Manhattan as a dark and gray place with the dress hanging over a toilet. In the lower-left corner, you can see flames coming out of a building with a crowd of people standing in its front. Most likely, this is a reflection of her Marxist views and concern about the treatment of workers. In her last painting, “Marxism Would Give Health To The Sick”, she posed with a Marxist red-colored book in front of a background that was split into good and evil. When asked what she thought of this painting, she responded “for once, I’m no longer crying”, hinting that her political views had a profound effect on her emotional state. The symbols that appear on her works give us an idea of her society and the way she lived.
Frida is a symbol of feminism, progress and being ahead of her times. Frida Kahlo painted her life and struggles without fear. She did not hide her sexuality, nor did she desexualize herself by painting pain in which she was naked. She does not paint her naked self as the focal point of the painting, rather, the symbols she surrounds herself with and the pain she is experiencing are the ones that really make it. Frida takes a bath in “What the Water Gave Me”. Her feet are only visible and one is deformed. Many symbols depict her struggles, including her dead naked body sinking alongside her parents. Two women are shown floating on a tan sponge and one is white. This shows her mixed heritage. This painting is a reflection of a pessimistic view on the Mexican and American societies. A building on fire and Frida drowning are used as metaphors to show the impact of foreign colonization. The Mexican people suffered from colonialism, and today, centuries later, America has taken almost half of Mexico, leaving them impoverished.
Frida was a woman who lived in pain, suffering, and despair. Her artwork reflects this very well. She suffered from a deformed foot and constant pain throughout her body, but also miscarriages as well as heartbreaks caused by her husband’s adultery. After her divorce from Diego Rivera in 1956, she painted a picture called “The Two Fridas”, which shows two separate versions of her, linked by heart vessels. In her palms, there is a medallion containing a picture Diego. This shows her sorrow and her suffering. Yet, she holds her hand out to show strength. It is surreal to see yourself as two people. Some people find it difficult to separate themselves from their bodies and take a fresh look at the world. Frida may have struggled with issues of identity, leading her to adopt a philosophical viewpoint. She might have felt like the person that she displayed to the public was not who she was when she looked into the mirror. “The Flying Bed”, a symbol of one of Frida’s miscarriages depicts her lying helpless, alone, and bleeding in bed. The cord connecting her belly to a fetus represents the child she never had. A pelvis connects her to the body. Her fractured pelvis, which she sustained as a teenager in an accident, never recovered fully, causing her to suffer pain for the rest of her life and preventing her from becoming a mother. The painting is vivid and raw, full of pain and emotion.
Her accident also forced her to wear a steel corset. In “The Broken Spine”, her emotional and physical pain are both visible. Her body, full of metal and nails, is accompanied by a spine made of steel. She is again left alone in a desert, surrounded by death. When you look at the painting in question, your first thought is of her “expressive eye”. The gaze of the artist on the picture allows her to release all that emotion. The artist can then invite the viewer to see things through her eyes. It was the only way for her to release all of those negative feelings.
In spite of the hardships she had to endure, she didn’t stop creating art. She lived with grace and dignity, pursuing her path as a person and artist. She insisted that she was not painting dreams, but rather her reality. She fought depression, addiction, and her deteriorating physical health through her painting. She was searching for an understanding of the world and herself. However, her art shows that she was always feeling incomplete. She painted herself as if she were split in two or as a separate entity. She was in constant struggle and pain. Yet, she remained her true self until the end.
