Frida Kahlo is a female Mexican artist. You might have even seen her in an animated movie. Coco is just one example of an animated movie that was touched by Frida Kahlo's artistry beside her Hispanic heritage. Despite making a minimal appearance in the film, it conveyed how much of an effect Kahlo's artistic abilities had on her country even until today. Kahlo's legacy began in Mexico City, Mexico. She was born on the sixth of July in the nineteen hundredth year of '07. She comes from a family of mixed descent, with a German father and a mother who is half Amerindian and Spanish.
The artist’s early childhood was pretty rough, growing up during the revolution. From a young age, she was already experiencing life’s harsh tribulations, to which she was diagnosed with polio at the age of 6. Polio is a contagious disease that can cause the nerve endings to become paralyzed, introduce shortness of breathing and sometimes death can occur as a result of this disease. Kahlo suffered from the sickness for nine months, to which it affected her right leg, resulting in her having a much thinner right leg than her left leg. After she had recovered from polio, her father encouraged her to do a vast amount of sports to help her with her insecurity. She participated in soccer, swimming and wrestling so that she could recover faster and become stronger. In regards to the time period, it is also best to keep in mind that it was strange for a girl to play sports. Father’s typically did not encourage females during that generation to be heavily involved in sports that portrayed masculinity neither, but this is only what added onto the strong relationship that she had with her father.
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When Kahlo attended the National Preparatory School in 1922, her first inspiration for art was from Diego Rivera, who too was a fellow artist. She created an oil painting of the two (herself and Mr. Rivera) standing side by side. It is widely believed to have been a wedding portrait by Kahlo simply because it was created two years after her and Rivera’s marriage. The painting was basic and quite straightforward, and was the one to essentially start off her career in 1931. However, she became famous for her outspokenness and bravery throughout the school prior to her popularity within the art community. In that same year, Kahlo also joined a gang with students who shared similar political and intellectual views. Kahlo’s paintings concerned issues that were either personal to her, or society itself. Issues such as gender, the class system, identity and so forth within and outside the realms of Mexico were subjects that she would talk about, regardless of how taboo it may have been considering that this was all occurring in the early nineteen hundred. Her radical pursuance and stance on political topics were always cookie cutter, never vague, as seen in a plenitude of her artwork.
One artwork that really struck society and went against its norms was the one that talked about her scandalous affair. It is already known that Frida Kahlo was a bold woman who would say anything that comes to her mind. Her actions coincide with such behavior when she had a ten year long relationship with American photographer, Nickolas Muray, well before her marriage to Rivera, up until her divorce with Rivera. She ended her affair with Muray the same year as her parting with former husband Rivera. During that time frame, Muray took a multitude of pictures regarding Kahol, and even bought the oil painting she created concerning her relationship with the two men. The painting was a self-portrait of Frida in front of greenery, displaying thorns wrapped around her neck and piercing her skin. A panther was prowling on the left of her shoulder and a monkey on the right. Attached to the thorns was a hummingbird hanging lifelessly. With a solemn expression, there are a few interpretations of what exactly the painting may be. It could be her endless suffering since enduring a bus accident, or it could be about the relationship she had with two men and the pain it might have caused her or to the recipients of her love. The answers are endless, but one thing that is for certain is the freedom she wished she had but could never truly obtain until death.
As an outspoken individual, Kahlo was not afraid to portray her inner dealings with her emotions. Previously stated, she grew up with hardships that physically challenged her, and would leave her mentally conflicted. With her diagnosis of polio at the age of six, paralysis and muscle atrophy on the right leg, getting into an accident at almost 18, Kahlo is not really considered to be one of the luckiest women. When the freak accident occurred, Frida broke, as well as shattered, an incredible amount of bones that led to many believing she would not make it through. A rail had entered her body, shoulders were left dislocated, ankles and so much more were either fractured, broken, or completely damaged to the point of no return. Further down the road of her life, she began to experience the symptoms of post-polio (which did hit later than it would normally) and depressive episodes. Not able to bear a child and having experienced a miscarriage, Kahlo found herself getting addicted to depressants to combat her desires with the rather untimely and cruel circumstances of life. One painting heavily displayed her discontent with life and the chronic pain she endured on the daily. “Thinking about Death,” conveyed the numerous complications of her terrible health condition, yet the faith she still invested into her beliefs that she would be reborn even after death. Within the painting is skull and crossbones on Kahlo’s forehead, symbolizing death. Behind her is the usual greenery. However, in Mexico it is symbolic for rebirth, and how life will still continue to carry on. Through it all, her face still remains serene and indifferent to the difficulties and tragedies that keep laying ahead of her.
Conclusion
To conclude, Frida Kahlo is a well-known Mexican artist who was not shy of controversial topics and the tribulations that she faced up until her adult years. She experienced an uncommon father-daughter relationship that remained strong until the very end, trials she did overcome or attempted. With oil painting and self-portraits being her main style to invoke deep thoughts, be it politically, emotionally, mentally or physically, she left her audience astounded. Every line or curvature of each painting was resounding and truly conveyed her inner thoughts, with a dash of wonder left behind. Frida Kahlo, an artist growing up during the Mexican Revolution.
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