Frida Kahlo

For our final piece we have to choose a picture and recreate and modernise it. For my final piece I have chosen Frida Kahlo.

Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter, most known for her self portraits. Mexican culture and traditions are important in her work, which has been sometimes characterised as naive art or folk art. Her work has also been described as surrealist. Frida created at least 140 paintings along with dozens of drawings and studies. Of her paintings about 55 are self portraits which often incorporate symbolic portrays of physical and psychological wounds. 
Diego Rivera had a great influence on her paintings style and she had always admired his work. Frida was also influenced by indigenous Mexican culture, which is shown by her use of bright colours, dramatic symbolism and primitive style. She frequently included the monkey, which in Mexican mythology is a symbol of lust, Frida portrays it as tender and protective symbols. Also Christian and Jewish themes are often depicted in her work. 

The photo I have chosen is: 



I chose to look at Frida Kahlo because I like the stories and also emotions behind each painting. It’s like each painting has its own story and it shows how each different emotion can produce and be shown in each painting. I chose this image in particular because I like how it can show different emotions that may be involved in the painting. The thorn necklace shows some form of pain she might have been feeling at the time and how the thorns have drawn out blood. However, the flowers, earrings and the dress indicate that Frida was dressing up.

Kahlo preferred dressing in native Mexican costume and paid great attention to her hair and make-up even when gravely ill. The numerous self-portraits she created range in mood from violent (i.e. showing herself as a deer shot through with arrows or a woman ripped open from neck to navel and covered with nails), to heart-rending (showing herself naked and bleeding profusely from complications of childbirth), to more serene images such as the Self-Portrait with Monkey.

Kahlo's imagery reflects a preoccupation with the exploration of love and its connection to pain in her life. Her relationship with Diego Rivera inspired many of her paintings. As her biographer, Hayden Herrera, noted, "Every time Diego left her, there's another painting with tears or gashes." In Kahlo's own words, Rivera showed her "the revolutionary sense of life and the true sense of colour.