"The Two Fridas"

Painted in 1939 after her divorce from Diego Rivera

Large self-portrait

"Self-Portrait on the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States"

Painted in 1932 after having been to America with Diego Rivera

Oil on metal

12 1/2" x 13 3/4"

"Self-Portrait with Monkey"

Painted in 1938 for somebody who wanted one of her portraits

Oil on masonite

16" x 12"

"Diego and I"

Painted in 1949 during problematic times with Diego Rivera

Oil on masonite

11 5/8" x 8 13/16"

"The Accident"

Drawn in 1926 after her tragic tram accident

Pencil on paper

7.8" x 10.6"

Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frida_Kahlo

A basic Wikipedia entry dedicated to Frida Kahlo's story and her career as a painter.

http://www.fridakahlo.com/

A short bibliography of Kahlo and some artwork.

http://www.frida-kahlo-foundation.org/

A dedicated website full of Frida Kahlo's artwork and self-portraiture.

http://www.pbs.org/weta/fridakahlo/

A website for the Frida Kahlo movie 'Frida' (2002).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NArbGCK_hrI

A youtube tribute video for Frida Kahlo and her life.

Frida Kahlo's "The Little Deer" is an emotional picture that presents us with the opportunity to feel sympathy and empathy for the artist through the use of symbolism. The self-portrait depicts Kahlo as a deer - her head on a deer's body - running through the woods. There are nine visible arrows stabbed into her in various places from which blood drips. Large antlers extend from either side of Kahlo's head as she faces us with a blank expression and her trademark uni-brow. A fallen branch lies beneath Kahlo and, in the foreground, sits a tree with a broken arm.

   Though we are presented with a still picture that can be examined for black & white facts, there is much to be inferred from the symbols and representations in this self-portrait of Frida Kahlo. The arrows that stick into her body can be considered a representation of pain, and pain alone, though logic dictates that the arrows be fired from someone or something. Whether painting herself as a hunted deer implies she is being killed by something or is just an expression of pain this is still a good use of symbolism. She could be conveying emotional/psychological pain or physical pain caused either by the accident or the subsequent trauma she had to live with.

   The fallen branch could mean a number of things depending on how far you regress when inferring information. The simple branch could mean lost hope or something dead, but when you further deduct that it must have come from a tree you could come to believe that Kahlo is trying to say there is a part of herself, or her life, that is broken or missing and cannot be fixed.

   At first glance it just looks like Kahlo’s head on a deer’s body with arrows stuck into her, but when you look at it closer you can see that she is trying to convey emotion and a painful part of her life.

Frida Kahlo’s ‘Self-portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird’ features the artist surrounded by Mexican cacti leaves, a monkey, a black cat and two dragonflies. She wears a necklace of thorns around her neck, from which hangs a hummingbird. She sports a blank expression and is wearing a traditional Mexican dress.
   This picture is generally symmetrical because the monkey and the cat are on either shoulder, her figure and face are symmetrical, the leaves in the background don’t stray too far from each other and the two dragonflies both fly around her head. Aside from Kahlo herself the details of the picture are not symmetrical, only the use of elements, principles and the positioning of certain parts of the picture.

   The portrait is ironically warm and comfortable looking in colour. Bright greens and yellows dominate both the foreground and the background, though they are broken up by deep-blacks and, at the top of the picture, a dull-blue. The only colourless part of this picture is Kahlo’s dress, though it is covered somewhat by brown thorns.

   Lines play a more important part than it may look at first. Kahlo’s expression relies on lines to create the disinterest in the eyes and the mouth as well as to create the shape of the nose. The lines create depth and detail in the leaves that sit in the background, without them there would be big yellow-green splotches in the background. The last place lines are used is the thorn necklace, it is used to outline and give shape to the thorns.

   Though the artist looks bored and un-moved in this picture there is still a sense of movement around her. The monkey is depicted picking at the thorns like he’s interested in them and can be easily pictured as though the picture were moving. The cat looks over her other shoulder, though it doesn’t look comfortable enough to be standing completely still and you can picture its tail moving. The main source of movement however sits atop Kahlo’s head where the dragonflies are buzzing around; the way her hair is tied up can give the impression that they are moving in a figure-8 motion.

   Overall, the elements and principles of design come together and create a sense of irony that goes hand-in-hand with the symbolism of the portrait. It is warm, harmonious and symmetrical with a sense of movement and small lines that are more important than they seem.

Frida Kahlo, born July 6^th 1907, was a female Mexican artist who produced many personal self-portraits. Most of her portraits feature her face, especially her eyebrows and her blank expression. Her eyebrows appear heavy and thick, they are basically a motif in her pictures. She is often surrounded by living creatures like animals or insects and they are always symbolic in one way or another. Frida Kahlo is more famous now than she ever was when she was alive, mostly because Mexico was a much harder place for women back when she was trying to make it as an artist.

   Frida Kahlo is well known for the story of her tragic life and the way she portrayed this through her artworks. On September 17^th, 1925, she was involved in a terrible accident on the streets of Mexico when the bus she was on crashed into a trolley car. The accident resulted in a broken spinal column, a broken collarbone, a broken pelvis, broken ribs, eleven fractures in her right leg, a dislocated shoulder and her right foot was smashed and dislocated. As if that wasn’t enough, an iron pole pierced her lower body and destroyed her reproductive organs. This event was the horrible start to the rest of her life.

   Kahlo was to spend approximately three months in a full body cast as her injuries healed. She abandoned her past aspirations and decided to take up painting to keep herself occupied in her hospital bed, thus beginning her painting career throughout which she produced 144 paintings (of which 55 were self portraits).