Frida Kahlo
1907-1954
LGBT ARTIST
All students must; Gain knowledge and insight into the life and work of the artist Keith Haring. All students must begin to learn how to use paper to create a three dimensional form
Most students should; Learn to add correct proportions and learn how a paper sculpture is constructed making a response to Haring’s work
Some students could; Learn to create an exciting interlocking sculpture demonstrating a good interpretation of Haring’s work.
Learning Objectives
You will gain knowledge and insight into the life and
portrait painting of Frida Kahlo, developing learning by
creating a composite self portrait from 3 view points.
You can create an emotionally charged self portrait (or
series of) making informed responses to Kahlo’s work.
You may create a series of self portraits skilfully
manipulating materials, making informed, imaginative
and personal responses to Kahlo’s work.
Who was Frida Kahlo?
Frida Kahlo is regarded as one of
the most significant artists of the
twentieth century.
Kahlo put her own body at the
centre of her art.
Through the representation of her
body she explored aspects of her
autobiography, the construction of
identity, female experience, gender
boundaries and subverted
stereotypical representations of
women and their bodies in art.
Frida Kahlo began painting during her convalescence from a terrible accident, when
a tram collided with the bus on which she was travelling. The impact broke her
spine, and fractured her leg, collarbone, ribs and pelvis. Her life became a battle
against the slow deterioration of her body. ‘She lived dying’ said one friend.
Frida Kahlo painting
her body cast in bed with the aid of a mirror
- during one of her
periods of illness.
From an early age, Frida Kahlo dressed as a man at times. She also had lesbian
relationships with various women, including the well-known artist Georgia
O’Keeffe.
Frida Kahlo was bisexual.
In 1928, when she was 21,
Kahlo embarked on a
relationship with Diego Rivera.
They married in 1929,
divorced in 1939, and
remarried in 1940. Rivera,
twenty years her senior, was
Mexico’s most celebrated
artist, famed for politically
motivated murals that adorned
the walls of numerous public
buildings.
Encouraged by Rivera, who
used aspects of Mexican folk
art in his mural schemes,
Kahlo began to paint in a more
vernacular style and began a
series of self-portraits.
Keith Haring was one of the most influential visual artists of the late 20 th century. He wanted to bring art to everyone and started drawing on the subway. He was part of a Hip Hop s
Rivera described Kahlo as:
‘The only artist in the history
of art who tore open her
chest and heart to reveal
the biological truth of her
feelings’.
Self-portraiture was Kahlo’s
most consistent and
successful mode of
expression, and the genre
that allowed her to
penetrate and dissect the
very core of her being.
In her art she expressed
her sexual ambiguities,
androgynous traits and
bisexual tendencies.
In Two Nudes in a Forest, 1939, Kahlo paints two women lying together. One is
light skinned, one dark skinned. They might represent two aspects of a single
nature, or the mixed racial origins of the Mexican people. The painting also
touches on Kahlo’s bisexuality – the pair are watched by a spider monkey, a
symbol of lust – and could equally be interpreted as Kahlo herself and a woman
she loved. This painting raises the theme of bisexuality more explicitly than
anywhere else in Kahlo’s work.
Kahlo’s expressions of her
sexual ambiguity and her
tendency to cross-dress
attempted to explode the
stereotypical roles assigned to
women within a forcefully
macho society in Mexico at the
time.
She exaggerated such features
as her eyebrows and
moustache, her broad
shoulders and strong arms in
her paintings.
Self-Portrait with Monkey 1938
Diego and I 1949
Self-Portrait with Monkey 1940
In her portraits Kahlo’s features are as impassive as a mask. It is only the
addition of symbols, such as teardrops, monkeys, thorns, or arterial red
ribbons that indicate her psychological intent.
Here after their divorce Kahlo’s Self
Portrait with Cropped Hair 1940, presents
her unwillingness to accept various
female roles. Her cut hair and masculine
attire define her as an alternative,
androgynous Self.
By cropping her hair and by displaying
the evidence of her actions, Kahlo
created a complex symbolic image.
Here she is dressed in a man’s suit.
Nevertheless, she still wears her delicate
earrings, and the large suit dwarfs her
physique.
Kahlo’s cross-dressing was not
necessarily a denial of her gender, but a
way to analyse and communicate her
own complex gender predicament.
Here in Self-Portrait with Thorn
Necklace and Hummingbird
1940, Kahlo exaggerates her
facial hair, moustache, sideburns and joined eyebrows,
deliberately playing up the
androgynous and earthy aspects
of her natural yet unconventional
beauty.
The literal depiction of blood
represents physical harm and
pain. Yet blood implies
metaphysical suffering, her
necklace pierces her skin. This
work refers to religious rituals
and images of Christ’s Passion.
The self-portrait Thinking of
Death, 1943, deals explicitly with
Kahlo’s preoccupation with
mortality and the fragility of her
body. In this work, the third eye,
chakra, in the centre of the
forehead, denotes wisdom or
spiritual truth according to Indian
Yogic beliefs. It has been
supplanted with a death’s head.
The imagery and symbolism
used reflects Kahlo’s enduring
obsession with the universal
cycle of life, and her search for
harmony between dualistic
principles such as life and death,
male and female, light and dark,
ancient and modern.
•In pairs students discuss their experience of creating their portrait and review the outcomes referring to the learning objectives.
•Show examples that match the objectives.
•Consider the following questions; one of the contexts of Kahlo`s life was that she was a bisexual, does this reflect in her work? One of the contexts of Kahlo`s life was that she had
Consider the following questions;
One of the contexts of Kahlo`s life was that she was a
bisexual women. Does this reflect in her work?
One of the contexts of Kahlo`s life was that she had a
disability and was in pain a great deal of her life. Does this
reflect in her work?