Frida Kahlo used her paintings to tell us she was a lot of things. Often regarded as a surrealist painter, (no doubt, the pieces do present themselves as a bizarre concoction out of a dream), Kahlo often said that she only painted her reality. With a myriad of self-portraits and concepts ranging from the Mexican revolution, national identity, accidents and miscarriages, her paintings - despite her tumultuous and singular experiences- spoke of emotions that were universal - pain, loss, loneliness and love with honesty and raw passion like no other.
A common theme in Kahlo’s work was representation of duality. In her largest canvas, The Two Fridas, she used the duality of her personality to reflect on the divorce with her husband Diego Rivera. Frida had married Diego Rivera, a renowned artist and political figure from the Mexican Communist Party, who she had admired for quite a while. But the marriage had proved rocky, owing to Rivera’s repeated infidelity.
In The Two Fridas She describes her two personalities- one of them dressed in a traditional Mexican dress, the other in her European style wedding dress. The European Frida represents the version of herself that married Diego (thus, the wedding dress) and the Mexican Frida is a version that developed during her marriage, when she was influenced by Rivera’s strong sense of nationalism. Both of their hearts are bare, and a vein from Mexican Frida connects to the European one, who cuts open the vein and blood spills on her wedding dress, signifying the end of her marriage and the metaphysical pain that both her versions experienced. Yet, both Fridas hold hands, as if to say that they embrace each other and the ways in which Frida has grown. It expresses to us that the divorce has left her feeling lonely and imperfect; hence her two selves have turned to each other for comfort.
In Self Portrait on the Border of Mexico and the United States, she used duality to express the differences she experienced while on her stay in the USA, both in the outside environment as well as how she was perceived by other people, as more of Diego Rivera’s petite wife. Although she was impressed by America’s level of development, the sun and moon seem to shine only in Mexico.
Another common theme in her works has been physical pain and blood. In The Wounded Deer, she painted a deer that has been shot with multiple arrows in the abdomen, with her face as the deer’s. She looks teary and helpless in face of the circumstances that life has presented her with. The lighter and peaceful sea is far off in the distance, almost unreachable. The Broken Column, seems to be an even more explicit expression of the same, where her spine has literally been replaced by a broken steel column. Both the paintings alluded to the physical and emotional pain that she endured as a result of her childhood polio infection and bus accident that broke her pelvis and spine. The injuries caused her to undergo almost 30 or so operations in her lifetime.
Perhaps What the Water Gave Me serves as a thorough look into most facets of her life, quite literally as it is feels like Frida herself is looking into a bathtub filled with water where she is seated looking at her mismatched feet, contemplating. On the surface of the water, she has juxtaposed things that she has quite literally brought to surface from her mind - the political discourse on capitalism, her relationship with Diego, sexuality, her pain and death.
Today, she is remembered as a feminist & bisexual icon- recognized more for her alluring stare with her uni-brow and floral headdress. Kahlo remains popular not only because of her public persona but because her bold expression of self, both positive and negative was unbound by conventional standards of beauty and expectation, and carried with it a raw intensity that will keep resonating through generations.
Devyani is an art, literature and film enthusiast, with a special love for all things baroque. You can get in touch with Devyani on Instagram @purple_worm