Frida Kahlo

The name Frida Kahlo was not recognized up until the 1980s when fortunately Neomexicanismo, an artistic movement glorifying contemporary Mexican culture, gave way to the recognition and popularity of Kahlo’s art. An agreement that her paintings are used as a window into the struggling life she went through is set, but the interpretations behind her art are countless, and sometimes clashing, among those who interpret her paintings. Author Sharyn R. Udall tries to explain the relation between the struggling life of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and her self-portraits by analyzing the significance of Kahlo’s frail body used as reference to many of her paintings to themes, such as time and the Aztec concept of dualism, in the article titled “Frida Kahlo’s Mexican Body”. However, Udall’s interpretation of Kahlo’s paintings differs from Evelyn Beck’s explanation about the reasoning behind the self-portraits, referring to her paintings as a result of Kahlo’s gender in a highly patriarchal society. I personally think that Frida’s reasoning for her paintings are a combination of both author’s opinions. Udall’s explanations seem like good reasoning for certain paintings and Beck’s theory of Frida’s sexual abuse as a child, although quite extreme, also seem like a possible reason for the grotesque and explicit paintings.

Frida Kahlo was a famous Mexican painter, who lived from 1907-1954, known for her frail body and chaotic marriage with Diego Rivera, who was a Mexican artist as well. The contraction of Polio at an early age and the tragic accident that left her with a broken column and constant relapses of extreme pain, caused Frida to find in art a gateway out of her miserable life. Through her paintings she expressed not only what was occurring in her life, but also what was going on in the outside world. In one of her 55 self-portraits, titled Time Flies, a plane is shown symbolizing the new modern era of technology, while a clock placed directly next to Frida’s head is used as a symbol of time. Udall sees this clock as a representation of Frida herself, not only because the hands of the clock’s face are shaped like Kahlo’s pronounced eyebrows, but also because the spiral column behind her is set at the same height as Kahlo’s broken spinal column. A comparison between Frida and the clock is set as symbol of her being “an instrument that measures time—that mediates between the past and the present”. The adult Frida displayed on Time Flies shows that during this stage of her life technology was already advancing at great lengths since there is an airplane shown in the background, which by the way was a method of transportation for both her and her husband, River, as they had flown in planes a couple of times. Apart from using time in her paintings Frida also used winged objects countless times, and according to Udall these were used as symbols of dualism where planes, butterflies and birds are her spirits. The author states that the reasoning behind all these winged creatures was Frida’s inability to walk properly due to the Polio that attacked her and left her with her right leg weaker than the other. Through these flying creatures Frida could escape the immobile physical life she lived by imagining herself as one of them and being able to travel anywhere without difficulty. In her diary she expressed how much she longed for wings, that she would go as far as getting completely rid of her feet in order to be able to defy “gravity, disease and time itself”.

Contrary to Udall’s beliefs, author Evelyn Beck sees Frida’s reasons for painting certain drawings as a result of some kind of childhood sexual abuse by her father, Guillermo Kahlo. Even though Beck’s theory might seem way out of line and ridiculous, she gives many examples and JDSFAS that do indeed support her argument. Growing up female during Frida’s time was an entryway to the abuse of the macho man in Mexico’s patriarchal society that did not respect women and their bodies. Beck explains that even though many interpret Frida’s images of wounding to the female body as a representation of her physical pain, she sees it as a sign that Frida was abused at a young age and could not express herself or reach out for help in any other way but by her paintings. Through context clues and psychological research Beck came to the conclusion that Kahlo is trying to tell her audience about her father’s sexual harassment through her bizarre paintings, such as What I Saw in the Water and My Birth. In the first painting, a naked woman, who looks very similar to Frida, is shown submerged in water while being strangled with a rope that leads to an undressed elder man. According to Beck this man is her father and the image is a clear symbol of the abuse she received by him while young. All the images shown in the painting are obviously accounts of Frida’s life as the foot that is shown at the head of the bath is crippled, resembling Kahlo’s foot. Next to it is blood dripping from the drain, which could either symbolize the deflowering by her own father or some other kind of abuse. In My Birth, Beck explains that this image is the symbol of Frida’s loss of virginity and her mother’s neglect of the sexual abuse going on in their household. The image shows a woman, with her head covered by sheets, giving birth to an adult that resembles Frida’s head with the bed sheets stained with blood. The woman whose head is covered is supposedly a representation of Frida’s mom’s silence towards what was occurring in the household and her neglect to do something about the situation.

Frida Kahlo portrays her struggling life and a timeline of Mexican society through her countless self-portraits and explicit paintings. The underlying meaning of her art has different opinions coming from many people, but Udall’s and Beck’s explanations seem to interpret it very well. Their concrete examples and information give readers an assurance of their beliefs and reasoning. I agree with both authors on their interpretations, but even so it is more likely that we will never know the true meaning of Kahlo’s disturbing, yet interesting, art.