Frida+Kahlo

= **Frida Kahlo** =

Biographical Information Essay Sample Paragraph Paintings


 * Biography**
 * Frida Kahlo's Life**

Frida Kahlo was a famous woman who liked to paint. She was from Mexico City in Coyoacan. She was born on July 6, 1913. She had many different problems in her body, including sickness, physical wounds, accidents, and operations. When she was six years old, she had polio which left her right leg thinner than the left. Later, she had a tragic bus accident on September 17, 1925 on a bus, and this accident cost her great physical illness. It took her four months to recovery fractures from the accident such as a broken column a broken pelvis and a damaged uterus.As a result, Kahlo had several natural abortions, which was the source of additional pain and suffering.

Frida was in love with Diego Rivera, a Mexican muralist who shared her ideals, and they got married in 1929. Diego Rivera had two loves in his life: painting and women. He spends must of the time in his work and he doesn’t pay attention to his wife. When frida has Diego Rivera next to him she feels better, but when he leaves her along she got sick again. Diego Rivera has many women and he betrayed her with her sister. Frida forgive him and her sister, but this was very hurt for her to forgive, but she did. Frida got divorce of Diego Rivera in 1939, but after the time she got marry again with him. Frifa said that she has two mistakes in her life the accident in the bus and Diego Rivera. She expresses her feelings in her work, but sometimes she uses her work for show what happened in her life.

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In Mexico Coyuacan was born one of the best painters of Mexico in 1907 Frida Kahlo. Her paintings were highly personal success as frida expressing her feeling and her pain. In her work, Frida expressed some specific events of her life.======

**Essay: Write an essay entitled: "Themes in Frida Kahlo's Life and Work"** I. Introduction II. Theme #1: relationship with Diego III. Theme #2: fertility IV. Theme#3: physical suffering V. Conclusion
 * 1) Famous Mexican painter
 * 2) Of the Surrealist School or tradition
 * 3) Lifetime relationship with another famous Mexican painter, muralist Diego Rivera
 * 4) she painted about fertility
 * 5) Desperately wanted a child but couldn’t have one because of an accident that caused her enormoussuffering throughout her life
 * 6) In her life and throughout her painting we see these Themes: relationship w/ Diego, fertility, physical suffering
 * 1) a. Theme in her life: talk about the relationship w/ Diego
 * 2) Deeply loved Diego to the point of obsession
 * 3) In her relationship with Diego, she sees herself as a nurturer like Mother Earth
 * 4) Relationship w/ Diego in her painting
 * 5) Painting 1: Anchor Bride and groom
 * 6) Painting 2: Diego on her mind – obsession
 * 7) Painting 3: Mother Earth w/ Diego in her arms
 * 1) Desperate to have children but couldn’t
 * 2) Pets as substitutes for children
 * 3) Several painful abortions
 * 4) Painting 1: Henry Ford Hospital
 * 5) Painting 2: self-portraits w/ monkeys and other animals
 * 6) Still lifes: fruit and flowers
 * 7) Connect the development of the theme in the paintings with the theme in her life
 * 1) Accident & repercussions
 * 2) Polio
 * 3) Painting 1
 * 4) Painting 2
 * 5) Painting 3
 * 1) Bring all the major points together
 * 2) Show us how your discussion of Kahlo’s life and work is significant…

= Sample Paragraphs = = = The painting “Los Dos Fridas” (1939) shows two sides of Frida – the Frida who is Mexican and the one who is of European descent. Both Fridas are connected from the heart by a red vein. They are also holding hands. The European Frida is trying to stop the bleeding from a vein coming from the heart with a hospital instrument. The European Frida is dressed in an elegant, white formal dress and wears make-up while the Mexican Frida wears the traditional dress of Mexican indigenous women. This painting suggests that Frida holds both cultures in her heart but she doesn’t feel the same way about both. The heart in European Frida is open and bleeding while the heart in the Mexican Frida is in good condition. This suggests that she identifies more strongly with her Mexican roots.

Frida Kahlo, the Mexican painter, suffered with many physical and emotional injuries/wounds throughout her life. Kahlo said, “I suffered two great accidents in my life. One was in an automobile accident, and the other was Diego Rivera.” When Frida was eighteen she got injured in a collision between a bus and a trolley. Her pelvis was broken and her spine was broken in three places so that she was bedridden for 4 months, had many operations, and suffered great pain. As a result she couldn’t have children. Her relationship to Diego Rivera, whom she adored, also proved to be a source of great suffering. In “The Broken Column” (1944) Frida stands alone in the desert with a broken Doric column for a spinal column. To stand upright she is supported by braces around her body. From her eyes flow tears that show her pain from the physical injuries she is suffering. Not only is her spine broken but she also feels pain of multiple nails puncturing her entire body, one of the largest in her heart. These nails are a symbol of the physical suffering. It is like her pain was as strong as the pain of nails driven into the body could produce. In “The Two Fridas” the extreme love that Frida felt for Diego was expressed on canvas. Kahlo painted this portrait just after she and Diego got divorced. The Frida on the right is the Frida that Diego once loved while the other Frida is the one that Diego betrayed and rejected. Both Fridas suffer terribly from a broken heart. The accident and the passionate love Kahlo felt for Diego caused Frida great suffering but inspired her to create paintings that move us all today to feel compassion.

In her life Frida Kahlo experienced traumatic physical injury after an accident on a public trolley. One day Kahlo left school and took a trolley going home. The trolley was hit by a bus and crashed into the corner of a building. Everyone in the accident was injured including Frida, who was most severely hurt. A handrail from the trolley went inside her hip and came out through her vagina, breaking her pelvis and her spinal in three places. She stayed in the hospital in a body cast for six weeks and she suffered from intense physical pain for the rest of her life. To relieve the pain she became dependent on morphine and she was unable to carry a child to full term. This physical injury is reflected in many of Kahlo’s paintings. In “The Broken Column” (1944) Kahlo is standing in the middle of a desert. Her broken spinal column is represented by a broken Greek column held upright by a body brace. Her entire body is punctured by nails. Tears stream down her face. We understand that the physical injury she suffered in that accident has changed her life. Physical pain has plagued her all her life and affected her emotionally, making her feel alone. In “The Little Deer” (19..) Frida portrays herself as a bleeding deer in the woods, injured with many arrows. Again, Kahlo is alone and suffering physical injury but the hunters are nowhere in sight. She is suffering from physical injury but there is no one to blame. In “Henry Ford Hospital” (1932) Frida is lying in a hospital bed covered in blood. She has just had a miscarriage. Floating around her are several objects – the fetus of the unborn child, a slimy snail representing the miscarriage of the fetus, her damaged uterus and her damaged pelvis and equipment representing the operating room hospital equipment. Once again, Kahlo’s painting represents the physical pain and injury she suffered as a result of the accident. Clearly, the physical injury Kahlo suffered as teenager in the trolley accident impacted the rest of her life in many ways. On way that physical injury affected Frida was by causing her great suffering throughout her life.

= Paintings =