Bancroft Elementary School
Art Appreciation Program
Presents
Presents
“Self-Portrait with Small Monkey”
by
Kahlo
1907-1954
Lesson Summary:
 This lesson discusses the life and work of the great Mexican artist,
Frida Kahlo.
 Students will create their own mixed media personalized selfportrait collage.
© 2009 Bancroft Art Appreciation Committee
VOLUNTEER CHECKLIST
Lesson Information
Artist:
Frida Kahlo (1907-1954)
Art Title:
“Self-Portrait with Small Monkey, 1945”
Period or Style:
Surrealism
Art Element:
Space
Project/Medium:
Creating Personal Self-Portraits with Symbols
Prep-work Required
Discussion:
Familiarize yourself with current lesson details
Art Activity:
To prepare students for their self-portrait collage, send email to parents
of class to encourage them to send a small black and white picture with
their student to school for the art project. Or ask the teacher for a small
picture for each student for them to use.
(OPTIONAL)
Presentation Materials
Print outs:
“Self-Portrait with Thorned Necklace", "Thinking About
Death”,” Diego in My Thoughts", Self-Portrait with Hair
Down"
Electronic
Lascaux cave paintings, Photo of Frida, "Frida and Diego- On “thumb”
1931", "Retable of Accident-1940", "Diego in My Thoughts- drive in art
1943", "Self-Portrait with Small Monkey", "Self-Portrait cabinet
With Hair Down-1947","Thinking About Death", "Tree of
Hope, Remain Strong-1946", "The Frame-1938"
Images:
In folder
Lesson Plan:
Kahlo
Background
Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists book; Frida In folder
Kahlo, The Artist who Painted Herself book
Info:
In folder
Activity Materials
6x11 watercolor or cardstock paper
1 sheet per student
Collection of different scrapbook papers cut to 6x6 and
Enough for each table
Other sizes
Pencils, glue sticks, glue bottles, markers, ultra-fine point sharpies,
felt, sequence, yarn, quotes, dictionary definitions of life skills or
other inspirations.
© 2009 Bancroft Art Appreciation Committee
Enough for each table
KAHLO LESSON PLAN
Lesson Objectives
 To introduce students to the life and art of Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo.
 To learn about Symbolism and the use of Space in art.
Presentation Timing
 With Upper Grade students, your discussion time may be a bit longer than with
the lower grades. Spend 15 minutes on the discussion portion and 45 minutes on
the art activity. Share with students important facts from the lesson plan.
Introduction
 Why are humans compelled to draw pictures? (Show Cave Paintings) In the
cave paintings at Lascaux in France we can find pictures of animals drawn by
humans almost 17,000 years ago. Such a long time ago-think, the Pyramids were
built only 5000 yrs ago! There are horses, cows, bulls, deer, bison, wild goats,
rhinos, a bear, wolves. Even with bad lighting, rudimentary supplies-their will to
create pictorial images was as strong as ours is today. Why? Did it affirm their
existence? Did they want to be remembered or remember what they saw?
Want create connections? Celebrate the hunt? Maybe it just felt healing and
good to do?
Frida Kahlo
 (Show Photo of Frida) Frida painted in order to heal herself. She painted SelfPortraits to externalize her internal suffering.
 Frida's sad tale of suffering began when she was 6 yrs old. She was born in
Mexico City in 1907 to a Hungarian Jewish father and Spanish Native American
mother. She was strickened with Polio at age six and it restricted the use of
her right foot. Then in 1925, at the age of 18 the bus she was on was hit and
dragged by a street car. She sustained many serious injuries including-her
spine and pelvis were broken in three places, her left shoulder was dislocated,
her right leg, already compromised by the polio, was fractured in 11 places, her
right foot was crushed, and a steel handrail was skewered through her
abdomen. It was a miracle that she survived. After this she never lived a day
without pain.
 She was physically and emotionally broken in pieces like a puzzle. Bedridden she
turned to painting to occupy herself. Her subject matter was limited to herself
so she painted many self-portraits which would become her trademark.
© 2009 Bancroft Art Appreciation Committee
 Her self-portraits were a form of twinship. The Frida she painted was stoic
and strong and able to endure the agony she could hardly bear. They were a
way of putting her fragmented self back together. They were extremely
personal and each included symbolic details defining her.
 When she was through convalescing she approached Diego Rivera, a world
renowned Mexican muralist about her paintings. He encouraged her to continue
and became her most important mentor in her life and her husband. (Show
Frida and Diego) He influenced her painting, politics and even how she dressed.
He encouraged her to paint Retablos to help her heal the emotional pain from
her accident. (Show Retablo) Retablos are traditional Mexican paintings that
depict accidents, illness and tragedy as a way to gain closure and lesson the
trauma of the incident. He encouraged her to embrace her Mexican heritage
and dress in traditional clothes and wear her hair down. Many of her selfportraits show her in traditional dress or with her hair down to please her
beloved Diego. (show "Diego in My Thoughts", "Self-Portrait w/ small Monkey",
and "Self-Portrait with Hair Down"-sold for $1,650,000 in 1991.)
 She continued to need many surgeries in her life and many paintings show her
struggle with the agony of it all.(Show "Thinking of Death"-painted during a
particularly painful time, "Tree of Hope, Remain Strong"-shows two Frida's one
fragile after surgery and the other by her side and strong)
 In Frida's short life she gained status as one of most legendary women in the
history of art. She was the first Latina to have her work hanging in the Louvre
in Paris.(Show "The Frame") This mixed-media piece of aluminum and glass
hangs there.
 Frida died at the age of 47 in 1954.
Surrealism
 Frida Kahlo belonged to the Surrealist art movement.
 Surrealism explored the world of dreams and tried to legitimize the
dreamworld as reality.
 Surrealism came into being after the French Poet Andre Breton published the
Manifesto of Surrealism after World War ! in 1924.
 The Manifesto rebels against rational everyday thought as the enemy of
creativity.
© 2009 Bancroft Art Appreciation Committee
Space
 Artists can use the element of space to convey many things in their artwork.
 They can start with showing the figure-ground relationship-is it harmonious or
figure dominant and at odds with the background.
 Frida often shows herself/Woman as figure emphasizing the woman’s object
status.
 The placement of the horizon line is also important. Sometimes Frida puts it
high emphasizing herself and broken body as the main subject of the painting.
 Also what point of view is shown? Is it direct or to the side or obscured?
Often Frida shows herself in direct point-of-view depicting the message as
clear, accessible and un-obscured.
© 2009 Bancroft Art Appreciation Committee
Art Activity
 Considering our discussion on Frida Kahlo, Surrealism and Space we are going to
create self-portrait collages.
 Hand out 6x11 watercolor or cardstock paper. Have children put their name and
their room number/teacher on the back.
 Take time to discuss what elements the students are going to include in the
self-portrait while showing the project example.
 Some ideas of things to include are:
1. Something that brings you Joy: This could be an object, pet,
activity, music, rainbows, video game, drawing, books etc. Maybe it
will be beside you or you will be holding it.
2. Something you are proud of: This could be something you are good
at, a symbol of your heritage(flag-dress), religion, family. It maybe a
uniform or clothing or hat or pin or jewelry that reminds you of your
grandma or other symbol.
3. Something painful that you have endured: This could be a loss of
pet or person. A difficult move. An injury or illness or a fear you
have.
4. Something you hope or dream for: This could be travel (globe,
airplane), to be a doctor, world peace (dove), to be rich ($), to fly
(wings), etc. Maybe these things will be in the sky since they are still
to be acheived and part of your dreams.
 Students will pick two scrapbook papers: one for the sky and one for the ground
that they can relate to. They can start with gluing these on the paper creating
their background.
 Next they can use a photo of themselves or draw themselves and put it
somewhere in the collage.
 Using all the materials available they can continue to add objects and
decorations that speak something about them.
 Collect and dry if needed and then store safely until the end of the year.
© 2009 Bancroft Art Appreciation Committee