Art Historian | Museum Conservation | Artist
A Journey Through Sorrow and Surrealism:
Discovering the Depths of Frida Kahlo’s Art
By: Melina Elise Starr
An Enlightened Education:
The unconscious conundrum of our identity toys with and taunts the most enthusiastic artists and humans. Who are we, and what is our plan for life? Our inner identities are involved in constructing complicated characters that dictate how we want to live. Whether through introspective involvement, external encouragement, or cultural heritage, many things emphasize our roles as part of this vast universe. We craft complicated collages of ourselves within our origins. These principles are perfectly pieced deviations that we choose to symbolize our potent storm of spirit and soul. Our intricacies are absorbed together and showcased through our distinctly chosen depictions.
What determines who we are or how we think as sensitive human beings? What determines the capacity of our character or the intensity of our imagination? Frida Kahlo was an artist who was born stretched between two worlds. From the compassionate and rich societal conventions within her own family to the diverse social expectations of North America, Kahlo grew up experiencing a mixture of encounters and attitudes that would shape her life and art.
Born just after the turn of the century, on July 6, 1907, in Coyocan, Mexico, Frida Kahlo was the determined daughter of Guillermo and Matilde Kahlo, a German immigrant and a native woman of both Spanish and Mexican descent.[i] Combining many different cultural backgrounds and diverse beliefs, her parents helped mold her into a forward-thinking, optimistic young woman. Determined and outspoken, young Kahlo was revered by her family and afforded the best education a young female of that time could wish for.[ii]
Passion and Pain:
Throughout her childhood, Frida Kahlo explored the depths of her inspiration and aspirations, pondering what she could achieve and what significance her ambitions held for her. Unbeknownst to Kahlo, her life would change dramatically in an instant that would alter every part of her young life. On September 17, 1925, at the age of 18, Kahlo was in a horrific bus accident that left her permanently disabled and in devastating pain for the rest of her life.[iii]
Despite the acute and unceasing pain, Frida Kahlo used the long lengths of time it took for her to recover, affixed to a bed, to turn her sorrow into seeded stimulation. While conscious of her challenging circumstances, she sought to affirm to herself that her situation would not hinder her aspirations or define her future. By unwaveringly devoting herself to her dreams, she actively shaped her destiny. Kahlo took this trying time and taught herself how to portray her feelings with paint, creating an outlet for herself that could be both supportive and spiritually freeing.[iv]
Through Kahlo’s early conceptions, she depicts her inner judgments about herself and the singularity surrounding her as she ages. While feeling broken and bound, she throws herself into her art, rendering awareness and altered acuity of her situation. Kahlo used her canvas as a reminder of her self-assurance that this would not stop her plans and who she would become. Frida Kahlo stated suggestible symbols and studied subjects that signify her life was based on the never-ending limits of her potential, and that, in turn, helped shape the pensive plans for her legacy.
Evolution of Inspiration:
Frida Kahlo's intuitive intelligence and her inspired vision were intertwined with her way of life and work. She viewed herself as genuine and palpable, depicting the beauty and intricacy she saw in her echo upon her canvas. Raised to live confidently and without fear, Kahlo embraced a life without boundaries.[v] Unapologetically, she produced art that resonated with her and revealed her heritage, proving that no obstacle was insurmountable. Within the images in Kahlo’s Roots, she is seen contained by and penetratingly welded between the branches along the ground, unable to move yet growing within the earth.
Kahlo’s body of work shows her composed and sometimes convoluted thoughts and ideas originate in the most ethereal artwork. The painting Root[vi]s, a distorted and dissolved form of Kahlo’s self-portrait, provides another example of expressionism pieced away formlessly from her body. This painting highlights the importance of the natural form and the interworking of our biological bodies. By delicately detailing the woman’s elusive outline versus the coarsely contrasted components, we witness the battle between human life and nature: rational and irrational, organic and synthetic.
Through Frida Kahlo’s many intricately detailed self-portraits, we see an honesty and beauty that the world became enamored with. With a natural and alluring disposition and perspective, Kahlo lived and executed her art audaciously. She wore native Mexican attire to show her unique and unforgettable character.[vii] Within the layers of Kahlo’s profound self-portrait, The Broken Column, we see her anguished appearance and afflicting emotions that consume her mind and body.[viii] The impediment contorts and constrains her body and soul while she cries silently.
Spellbound Symbology
Frida Kahlo’s continuous internal conflict is within her beliefs of religion and use of religious imagery. This conflict is seen throughout many of Kahlo’s artworks. She uses religious iconography to represent her innermost heart and soul. Biblical motifs amass her extensive collection of work, articulately defining her stance in life. Kahlo used many Biblical themes that were known by all within her creative illustrations. This symbolic representation of her mixed beliefs helped her make a cultural revolutionary.[ix]
The perplexity of the probs Frida Kahlo had about religion helped ignite her inspiration. She incorporated the imagery that meant the most to her, combining many popular icons to create deep connections to culture and society. These paintings reflect the complicated relationship Kahlo had with religion and its significance. Kahlo uses essential symbols that help exact emotion and impact meaning. We consistently see Kahlo delve deep within her conscience to create.
Symbology is one of the sole creative techniques that articulates the artist’s thoughts and intentions. Apparent in her motifs, you can understand more about how Frida Kahlo was raised and how her artwork reflects her childhood. She uses these same themes throughout her life, characterizing her relationship with God and how she spiritually views her life. Kahlo lived and painted emotionally and passionately.
Through her artwork, Frida Kahlo illustrates many impactful memories, revealing a different aspect of the artist. Kahlo draws on some critical motifs that unconsciously represent Kahlo's relationship with her family and what that meant to her. Kahlo used religious and intensely intrusive motifs in her prints to embody her visions and realities.[x] Ultimately, we understand that these many examples expressively represent some of the artist’s innermost thoughts and views.
Lovers, Losses, and Liberation:
Frida Kahlo's distinctiveness as a female artist and the impact Diego Rivera had on her life are some of the most predominant aspects of her career and life. Their tumultuous relationship and its lifelong trajectory helped shape how she created her paintings. It gave her the provocation and appetite she cherished about her life and her artwork. Diego Rivera was, in part, Kahlo’s creative muse, and he inspired her to broach herself beautifully and to delve deep within her mind to conceive evocative, unconfined ideas.[xi]
Frida Kahlo prospered greatly creatively but suffered immensely psychologically within her complicated relationship with the famed Mexican artist.[xii] His many illicit affairs, along with multiple harrowing miscarriages, ravaged her troubled life.[xiii] Depression and other mental and physical ailments affected her state of mind throughout her life. She was not afraid to communicate constructively and capture the plagued adversities she endured during a time when mental health was severely stigmatized, especially for women, even more so than today.
Whatever Frida Kahlo contemplated or considered for her future was how she lived her life, commanding it with conviction. She was enlightened by her insights into life and exemplified her achievable destiny and distinctiveness. What feats could she accomplish, and what did they mean to her? Kahlo lived an engaged life that projected both an artistic appearance and an innate awareness of the world around her.
Speculative Surrealism:
The mind perceives things differently from what it thinks a painting is trying to project. Each person has a different emotional reaction. To envision and emote both pleasant and unpleasant feelings from within the complex dynamics of Frida Kahlo’s imagination with the infinite number of complicated renderings of what we envision within our aspirations. The ambition of most artists is to captivate the commanding relationship we have with nature and the balance between life and loss. They aim to use the intensity of intellect to display the physical impediments of mankind.
Frida Kahlo’s progressive repertoire of painting reflects the thoughts and feelings of a different kind of distinction of deviation. The various aspects of each figure within her paintings project a disconnected and mysterious impression. Kahlo’s sundry self-portraits delineate her body from the backgrounds that are rippled out and filled in with a complex ecology consistency. These transformed components stand out against the stark landscape setting like a pieced-together collage.
With the pureness of the rich hue coloration on the faces, busts, and background of the figures, we see the same dreamlike scenes as shown in some other modernistic works of art. Kahlo’s painting styles act against each other, exposing the stance of most intrepid modern artists compared to the traditional artworks of the past. Focusing on the unique idiosyncrasy and curiosity of the unconscious, this artist defies the laws of logic.
Surrealism, or the abstraction of reality, shows us our fantasies and how they are unique and individual to the idealist. Distorted forms and unfamiliar shapes are combined, manipulating our frame of mind. The way the roots and leaves melt down the canvas is like slowly dripping honey, giving this work of art movement and life. have the ability and the power to alter our frame of mind and challenge what we know is possible. The artistic techniques we see in Kahlo’s creative compilation of pieces challenge our notions of what is real and what is an illusion.
The Foremost Feminist:
Frida Kahlo’s impact on women and society was evident from the start of her career. First, being perceived only as the wife of a famous painter, Kahlo fought against gender stereotypes from the beginning. She was not an artist for fame or prestige like her counterparts; rather, Kahlo continued to spend her time pursuing a productive and communicative outlet for pain and stress. Kahlo used the pain she felt physically and passionately to fuel the intense fire that burned within her.
Frida Kahlo's eccentricity as a female artist provided her with a strong sense of brilliance and liberation. The challenges she faced due to her gender-motivated Kahlo to actively challenge and reshape societal preconceptions. She altered these stereotypes through her evocative and intensely innovative work. Through her art, she aimed to embolden and influence others and provoke a broader conversation surrounding gender, persona, and public norms.
Frida Kahlo used her provocation and personality to promote her productions. Never shying away from taboo subjects, Kahlo openly projected herself unapologetically. Stretching the limits of society's rules and regulations, she helped evolve and expand an imaginative landscape that was unprecedented for women. Frida was recognized as a female artist who wanted to reach out and challenge people's preconceptions. She used her artwork to raise awareness for women’s rights and their freedom to state their sexuality and empowerment.
Manifesting A Cultural Revolution:
Proudly representing her heritage and instigating others to live boldly, Frida Kahlo epitomized the unadulterated role of a fundamental feminist. She paved the way and created a place for women artists during a time when they seldom had creative freedom. Kahlo used her spotlight to raise awareness about what was important to her cultural heritage and critical to her innermost integrity. Kahlo always stayed true to herself as a woman and developed her individualized intuition and essence.
This instrumental artist fashioned a new avant-garde world by focusing on her philosophies and remaining true to herself. She used her original ideas to illustrate her interests, including internal ruminations and abstract references. Frida Kahlo’s revolutionary way of thinking helped thrust her into an advanced world fit for a woman in the art world. Kahlo unapologetically created artwork that spoke to her and manifested her cultural background, highlighting that no barrier was too great for her.
The impressions of Frida Kahlo’s artwork embody how she lived and worked as a painter. Kahlo imparted everything true and tangible. The beauty and complexity of what she saw in the mirror is what she interpreted. Kahlo’s education and knowledge about the freedoms and opportunities of the world explain why she lived without limitations.[xiv] Keeping her mind constantly focused on her hopes and concepts led this inspirational painter to mold an unprecedented world for herself and those who follow in her footsteps.
Frida Kahlo's paintings are intricate illusions that depict a wide range of natural and extraordinary elements. Her distinct style of abstract fantasy falls within the avant-garde movement, which played a significant role in advancing women artists in the art world. By creating artwork that contradicts itself, Kahlo's work challenges the boundaries between rationality and irrationality. Her contemplative pieces symbolize the interpretation of concepts from the unconscious.
Artworks:
6. Frida Kahlo, Roots, 1943, Oil paint, 1’8”x1’0”, Private Collection
6.
8. Frida Kahlo, The Broken Column, 1944, Oil on Masonite, 39.8cm x 30.6 (15.7 in 12.0 in), Museo Dolores Olmedo, Xochimilcan, Mexico City, Mexico
8.