Oil Painting Reproductions On Canvas

The Meanings Of Frida Kahlo Paintings

Frida Kahlo The Broken Column

A revolutionary female Mexican painter, Frida Kahlo was one of the main contributors of the Surrealist art movement in the early 1920s. The most famous paintings by Frida Kahlo are self-portraits and usually contain surreal themes, in addition to reflections of both Mexican and American culture. Her marriage with famous Mexican artist Diego Rivera is also a well-known fact about the artist’s life; however, the marriage itself was a very hostile environment for both artists due to extramarital affairs and anger management issues on both sides. Despite her many struggles, or perhaps as a result of them, Frida Kahlo paintings are still considered some of the best and most valuable pieces in the entire world today.

Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird

No list of Frida Kahlo paintings is complete without Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird. The painting features Kahlo as a Christlike figure with a necklace of thorns cutting into her skin, while a hummingbird is featured as the pendant of the necklace. This painting is a quintessential example of Kahlo’s common blending of American and Mexican culture by representing both Aztec and Christian imagery with Christlike symbolism and a hummingbird, often used to represent the Aztec god Huitzilopochtli. Like other Frida Kahlo paintings, this one reveals her calm expression in the face of personal suffering.

The Suicide of Dorothy Hale

Inspired by the death of aspiring actress Dorothy Hale, Frida Kahlo painted The Suicide of Dorothy Hale at the request of Vanity Fair publisher Clare Booth Luce, who requested the painting for Hale’s mother. The picture features three images of Hale in the process of jumping off of a building in New York City: one as a small figure leaping from the building, one larger figure falling through the clouds in a very delicate, dancer-like formation, and a final image of Hale laying bloodied and broken on the sidewalk. The painting itself spans beyond the confines of the canvas and seeps out onto the frame, representing Hale’s new freedom as well as the widespread impact of her tragic death.

The Broken Column

One of the more surreal works of all of the paintings by Frida Kahlo, The Broken Column is another self-portrait of Kahlo with several images representing the pain she endured throughout her life both physically and emotionally. The portrait features a naked Kahlo with her body torn open slightly to reveal a representation of her damaged spine as a broken column. The rest of her body is held together by a harness and her exposed skin is punctured by multiple nails, which recalls Christlike imagery and reveals a sense of her own chronic pain. Unlike previous Frida Kahlo paintings, this one features tears streaming from her eyes despite the lack of emotion on her face. Behind her lies a desolate wasteland with no hope in sight.

Self-Portrait with the Portrait of Doctor Farill

Expressing her confinement to a wheelchair after her health declined toward the end of her life, Self-Portrait with the Portrait of Doctor Farill is one of the last paintings by Frida Kahlo. The image features Kahlo in an empty room wearing draped clothing with nothing but a palette and a canvas. Instead of paint, the palette features an image of a heart, intended to represent that Kahlo’s heart was in her paintings. Her depiction of herself in a wheelchair also revealed how her pain had crippled her and her only solace was through painting the works that are so treasured today.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, February 12th, 2012 at 2:47 pm. It is filed under VISUAL ARTS and tagged with Frida Kahlo paintings, Mexican artist. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.