the frida kahlo appreciation thread

The movie is an example that the Oscars sometimes get it right*: it won for original score. It has a couple of the most powerful musical scenes in it I've ever seen. The one leading to this self-portrait is incredibly moving.





*Oscar got it wrong later that night when they gave Best Actress to Nicole Kidman instead of Salma Hayek, though.

I saw the movie with (because of?) Salma Hayek. She lead an interesting life, that's for sure.

absolutely. it was one of the most powerful scenes in a movie that was filled with them.

no doubt about it, frida kept a sort of living journal of her life through her paintings. sometimes the simplest things in her paintings can be just a small acknowledgment of the great emotional or physical pain she was experiencing at the time. other times, her paintings reflected her anguish so well they were just like looking at an open wound.

one thing i have never understood or appreciated were critics who claim to know what every last object symbolizes in a painting. sometimes i can grudgingly admit that it is probably truth, but other times i don't. sometimes an apple is just an apple. so i will not to try to do that here, but i've read a great deal about her paintings in the last few weeks, which certainly doesn't qualify me as anything but a still clueless admirer; i am only going by what i think they could possibly mean.


frida and the cesarean operation, 1932

this unfinished painting was started prior to a devastating and life-threatening miscarriage frida suffered in the spring of 1932. this was the second time frida became pregnant after marrying diego, who never wanted children like frida did. after a failed attempt to abort the pregnancy, frida was told by doctors she could probably carry the child to term as long as she had a cesarean. the painting seems to convey both the hope and the fear frida was feeling at the time. she had the miscarriage before she could finish it. shortly afterwards she began one of her most famous and memorable works -


henry ford hospital (the flying bed), 1932

though some might think this is one of frida's more disturbing portraits, it only makes me feel terrible sadness for her loss and the despair she must have been feeling. the figures surrounding her bed are connected to her, as if by umbilical cords as she lays on a blood soaked bed. one, of course, is the baby she hoped to have. the snail might suggest the slow, agonizing process of the miscarriage itself, or the time she spent worrying about the outcome of the pregnancy. of the plastic looking female torso, frida said it was an idea of explaining the insides of a woman. she invented a scary looking machine as to explain the mechanical part of the whole business. the orchid was a gift from diego after the miscarriage and the broken pelvis is pretty evident as an image of her own broken and fragile body that cannot have children. what moves me the most in this painting is the large tear on frida's face.


the wounded table, 1940

this was one of frida's largest paintings, measuring around four by eight feet. some thought she did it purposely because it would be shown at an exhibition where diego would be showing significantly smaller works, and this was a time when frida was pretty fed up with diego's cheating, as it was painted during their divorce. resembling a bizarre reproduction of the last supper, the wounded table features frida at the center, much like jesus christ, surrounded by some eclectic characters. an over sized "judas" is to her right, which looks like diego - much larger than frida, wearing his usual overalls. i'm sure it was easy for frida to associate diego with judas after his affair with her sister. the judas and the skeleton were also featured in the four inhabitants of mexico, that she painted two years earlier. two of christina's children are also featured, as well as a pre-columbian sculptor and her pet deer, granizo. there are many references to frida's injured foot and legs - the skeleton and judas both have bandaged and bloody feet, the table appears to have damaged human legs, and even the idol has peg legs. frida said she gave the painting to a museum in moscow, but its whereabouts are unknown now.


memory, 1937

the affair between her husband and her beloved sister must have been nearly unbearable for frida. christina's abusive husband had left her and their two children, so they were living with frida when the affair began. though frida knew going into her marriage with diego that he would continue his affairs, she was still hurt with each one he had. she dealt with it through her paintings and numerous affairs of her own. but sleeping with christina crossed the line. frida's broken heart is at her feet and the size of it suggests the comparison to how great her hurt was, as does the fact that she has no hands - which seems to imply how helpless she feels about the situation. her hair is short - she cut it short shortly after the discovery of diego and christina's affair. she is not dressed in her usual tehuna costumes that diego favored - it is hanging next to her, empty. so is the schoolgirl outfit on the other side, which might be a reminder of a simpler time for frida when she first met diego when she was still in school. her body is pierced - once more, but this time by diego and christina's betrayal, and her foot looks damaged, which coincides with a recent operation she'd had. this painting was auctioned at christie's in new york city in 1992 for $935,000.00. the part that disturbs me the most are the single arms on the otherwise empty dresses, especially the school uniform, which appears (to me) to be reaching for frida.


self-portrait with cropped hair, 1940

as calli pointed out, this is one of frida's most powerful paintings that represented the pain she felt after discovering diego and christina's affair. it is indeed one of the best scenes in frida. this was the first self-portrait frida did after the divorce. maybe she cut her hair short because diego loved it long. maybe she only did it as an expression of her anger and pain. she wears a large suit, which could be one of diego's, but frida wore men's suits from time to time -



as she did in ^this 1926 family portrait. her hair is scattered everywhere and she holds a lock as a trophy of her act of self-mutilation. lyrics to a song are painted above, which lacks the color and life frida normally used in her work - see, if i loved you, it was for your hair, now you're bald, i don't love you anymore.