Artist Analysis Frida Kahlo

For our first artist analysis we did Frida Kahlo, a Mexican painter who was best known for her incredible self portraits.

The two fridas

Artist: Frida Kahlo (famous mexican artist).

Medium used: oil painting on canvas.

Year created: 1939.

Dimensions of painting: 172.7cm by 172.7 cm, it is a square shaped painting.

Location of painting: Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City.

Context

This painting is depicting two various versions of the artist, Frida Kahlo, herself. It is a double self portrait of herself, as there are two self portraits of herself instead of just a regualr one. The Frida on the left is wearing an old European dress, which could be showing her German heritage, as her father was German. This Frida has also been painted with a broken heart. The heart has been torn apart using surgical scissors/pliers. There are also large blood stains on the dress. The Frida on the right is wearing a traditional tehuana dress, which a dress originating from Mexico, which is showing the heritage from her mother’s side. However, this Frida does not have a broken heart. In fact the broken heart, located on the left, is attached by the main artery to the heart on the right, which is showing aversion of human anatomy. It almost looks like the broken heart is  fixing the whole heart, which is why the left heart is broken. It may be showing she has no close relation with her father or her European heritage, but does have a close relation with her mother and Mexican heritage. 

This painting was painted after the divorce from her ex-husband, Diego. So, this painting could also be showing or symbolizing the heartbreak and loneliness and depressions she has been going through after she and Diego had gotten divorced.

Mood

The mood within the painting is quite sad and depressing. There is a mixture of cold and warm colours used, however the back ground of the sky is only using cold colours, which is why it is giving off a very tragic feeling.  There aren’t really many warm colours used especially compared to the large amount of cold and tragic olours being used within this piece.

The hearts are being quite emphasized, as they are outside of the bodies, which is very unnatural. As the hearts are emphasized, the broken one stands out a bit more, as it has been ripped apart, which again is giving off a quite depressing mood. The blood accents the piece as it is symbolizing her emotional and physical pain she had suffered from.

The expression on the faces of the two Fridas is quite emotionless and monotone. There is no real expression shown. So it isn’t giving much away. 

I think that the dark sky is symbolizing how the painting is showing the despair the painter, Frida Kahlo, was feeling, as she painted this to represent her feelings after the divorce with Diego took place.

It may also in a way being showing a sign of hope, as she is

showing that her broken heart is mending the other heart through

the large artery.

     Form and Process

The form of the two Fridas is an oil painting, which has been done on a canvas. The canvas dimensions of this painting is 172.7cm by 172.7 cm. the shape of the painting is square.

There is not much negative space within the painting, since most is positive, the only real negative space is the flooring and sky. The oil painting has a few layers as she has her background of the sky, chair and flooring and then her foreground of the double self portrait.

It has been painted as a two dimensional painting, meaning it is flat. The sky looks as if it painted with texture, however it does not seem that it actually has three dimensional textures, so if you were to touch this double self portrait it would feel flat without any real texture.

The process behind this painting is quite simple. She has just gone through her divorce and was completing her painting and she had decided to showcase her deep hurt through this amazing piece of art.  The work has most likely been developed in her mind as she was going through both emotional and physical suffering throughout the tragic event of her divorce.

Citation

wikipedia. (unknown). The Two Fridas. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two_Fridas. Last accessed 4th oct 2015.

Doris Maria-Reina Bravo. (unknown). Kahlo (the two fridas). Available: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/art-between-wars/latin-american-modernism1/a/kahlo-the-two-fridas-las-dos-fridas. Last accessed 4th oct 2015.

google. (unknown). Kahlo,the two fridas . Available: http://www.google.ae/imgres?imgurl=https://ka-perseus-images.s3.amazonaws.com/74427da205ceccb64a4e285915d93823678118a2.jpg&imgrefurl=https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/art-between-wars/la. Last accessed 5th oct 2015.