Frida Kahlo (1907-1954, México)
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Mexican Expressionism
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The movement was centered in Mexico
With the Mexican muralist
The wanted their paintings to have a more personal
expression
The movement started when they were trying to
reunify the country the post Mexican revolution
government.
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The Mexican mural movement was born in the
20s, right after the Revolution (1910-1917)
Although Frida Kahlo was labelled as a
"surrealist " due to her dreamlike work but
she rejected that label because she painted her
reality not a dream
About Frida Kahlo
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On September 17, 1925 Frida was on a bus accident which impacted her life greatly, a street trolley crashed in to
her bus. Frida was greatly injured with 11 fractures on her right leg, her foot was dislocated and crushed, her left
shoulder was dislocated, Her collar-bone , two ribs and pelvis where all broken, and her spine and pelvis where
injured, leaving her unable to have children
Doctors that she wouldn’t make it, this is where she starting painting
Due to this accident she was infertile and had a few miscarriages
CHARACTERISTICS
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Psychologically mysterious
Almost always worked with figures
Most paintings are self portraits
Stories about Fridas life
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Themes of emotional suffering, psychological
suffering , vulnerability of the artist
She also did a few still life’s
The Two Fridas (1939)
The Two Fridas 1939
Oil on Canvas
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Frida painted “The Two Fridas” soon after her divorce with Diego Rivera.
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This painting is composed of two self-portraits. The one on the right in Tehuana
Dress is the one loved by Diego Rivera and the Frida on the left with the European white
dress is the one Diego divorced.
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The hearts on both Fridas are visible to show her emotions and her unhappiness
over Diego’s unreturned love
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An artery from the portrait of her husband (hand Mexican Frida) to the European
Frida where she is trying to stop the dripping of blood. Showing her emotional suffering
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The painting also shows her struggle with both her heratiages
My Dress Hangs There (1933)
 When Frida Kahlo went to New York with her husband in 1933, for their second
visit, she began this painting. This painting portrays Frida's feelings on the border
crossing between Mexico and the United States. This border crossing is what Frida
had been experiencing for the past three years as she traveled back and forth
between Mexico and the United States.
 The top half of the painting depicting some of the symbols of New York City such
as factories, skyscrapers, the port, Manhattan Island, and the Statue of Liberty,
depicted in the style of a tourist postcard.
 The lower half, of the show how she is not celebrating New York City as an
industrial/commercial power house, but portraying a city of decay, depravity,
alienation, squalor and destroyed human dignity, beneath the illusion of the city’s
My Dress Hangs There or New York 1933
touted industrial and economic prosperity This is shown by: the overall dark nature of the
painting as seen in: the garbage bins, one with apparent remnants of human body parts; the toilet and the trophy
on the pedestal; and the robot-like silver pipe being part of the factory in the right upper corner.
 In the middle is her traditional Mexican dress which represents how Frida wishes to go to back to Mexico
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Diego Y Yo (Diego and I 1949)
Diego Y Yo 1949
 Frida painted this artwork while her husband was having an affair with a film star who was
close to Frida, this painting shows her true emotions on the affair.
 Her eyes and her tears show shows how hurt she was.
 This is one of her few self-portraits where Frida has her hair lose, which is wrapped around
her neck as if it was to choke her which represents how she feels strangled about the
situation