Kahlo, 3 of 4. A Heroic Woman’s Struggle With Pain & Infertility
I encourage anyone to read biographies or watch movies on Frida Kahlo’s life. Having said that, I believe she expressed her points of view and unflinching realities through her art better than anyone could communicate for her.
According to Wikipedia: In her late teens, Kahlo suffered serious injuries in a bus accident, including a broken spinal column, a broken collarbone, broken ribs, a broken pelvis, eleven fractures in her right leg, a crushed and dislocated right foot, and a dislocated shoulder. Additionally, an iron handrail impaled her abdomen, piercing her uterus, which seriously damaged her reproductive ability. This was perhaps the most psychologically damaging component of the accident and a reality she never fully came to terms with. Though Frida recovered from her injuries and eventually regained her ability to walk, she was plagued by relapses of extreme pain for the remainder of her life. The pain was intense and often left her confined to a hospital or bedridden for months at a time. Frida would undergo as many as thirty-five operations in her life as a result of the accident, mainly on her back and her right leg and foot. Frida’s troubled childhood and the injuries she sustained in the bus accident were integral themes of her artistic career.
After the accident, Kahlo turned her attention away from the study of medicine to begin a full-time painting career. Drawing on personal experiences including her troubled marriage, her painful miscarriages, and her numerous operations, Kahlo’s works are often characterized by their stark–and sometimes shocking–portrayals of pain. Fifty-five of her 143 paintings are self-portraits, which frequently incorporate symbolic portrayals of her physical and psychological wounds. Kahlo was deeply influenced by indigenous Mexican culture, which is apparent in her paintings’ bright colors, dramatic symbolism and unapologetically harsh and gory content.
Wikipedia suggests that Kahlo’s work is sometimes classified as surrealist, and that may be true. But I find the images more compelling when considered straight forwardly as realism. Kahlo never considered her art surreal. “I paint my own reality,” she said. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frida_Kahlo
Click on the images if you wish to view them individually.
Painting with her heart on the palette, red dripping from her brushes:
I encourage anyone to read more about Frida Kahlo’s injuries and medical issues from diverse sources. On a related note, most women have at least one miscarriage in their life. So when considering women in your life, consider they likely had at least one miscarriage, whether or not they ever told you or anyone about it, and whether or not anyone ever helped them deal with all the potential mental ramifications from it. Kahlo’s work gives an uncensored and valuable perspective on the high degree of emotion and concern some women may have experienced and may deal with their whole life.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miscarriage
http://www.marchofdimes.com/professionals/681_1192.asp
http://www.webmd.com/hw/being_pregnant/hw44092.asp
Tomorrow: new post(s)
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Frida Kahlo Post Series: 1 2 3 4
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Most Recent Artworks All the Artists’ Artworks Index my43things
12 comments so far
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Great blog!
Thank you Mattias.
Interesting and well researched. I would love to discuss surrealism with you over a bottle of wine somewhere in Spain.
I think surrealists all paint their own reality in a way because they try to capture visually the essential object. Thus when we see someone in pain we see a normal person. When a surrealist paints someone in pain they paint the subjects body pricked with a thousand pins (in your examples.)
Thank you greenteeth,
So nice of you to say, and your comments on surrealism are so well said. My father had a Dali “Lincoln” in his home, you know the one you have to use a special eye glass to bring Lincoln’s image into focus? Without the eye glass perspective, a person sees a naked woman, a dry landscape and blocks of color. I’d love to go to Spain and drink wine, and discuss art too! Until then, I’ll exchange here with you whenever you’d like.
Just recently viewed the picture bout this great artist’s life… amazing work!
Thank you for the article.
You have sowed lots of thoughts that exceed the quotas of the comments. Therefore I want to share just one thought.
While reading your article I have recalled the words of Lithuanian poet Julius Janonis.
He wrote:
“There is no monument better than personal exercise/continuation of the heroes’ ideals” (translation is mine and maybe quite approximate, but I hope you grasped the main thought)
The relationship between Frida Kahlo’s injuries (her trauma) and her artworks is quite interesting theme for the profound discussion. But let me invite you not to Wikipedia, but the alive blog, whose heroes are the artists of art therapy club Modus Vivendi that is located at ,,, Psychiatric hospital …Modus Vivendi” is the alive example of the miracle of the discovering the beauty in what looks as the hopeless situation, in the daily pain, Just click on the link
http://trustlight.blogspot.com.
Personally I am also inseparable from my trauma, but that’s already another story.
Thank you once more for the wonderful article- for looking much deeper than just at the paints of the art shapes
Thank you for your comments JAB and Tomas. Tomas, I appreciated reading the personal things you share and the website is great.
I have not found anyone that could depict the pain of infertility so poignantly as you have in these pictures. OMG – you just described everything that I have through about and expereinced through your artwork. You have not aonly painted your reality but mine .
My sincerest sympathies to you. Thank you for being so kind as to share your connection to Frida Kahlo’s work. To avoid any confusion, the paintings are by Frida Kahlo. Here is more information on her extraordinary life and artworks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frida_Kahlo
Thank you again for expressing your appreciation for Kahlo’s work.
Thanks for the clarification . still awesome work !
hola to all!
i learn a bout Frita Kahlo is espanola’
she is my idol and i feal bad for all the pain she was in and hope her angle is have a better time then she use to have.
Amo el trabajo de frida, no por el dolor que refleja, sino por el valor, la entrega, la pasion por la vida que la hicieron salir adelante entre lagrimas y cicatrices.
Creo q frida no es la artista atormentada por el sufrimiento, sino la fuerte y apasionada q se atrevio a amar y a continuar.