Frida Kahlo Analysis

A life filled with immense pain both physical and emotional, Frida Kahlo began to revolutionize her emotions in the direction of an artistic form. Frida began to use her own body as a canvas—trying to hide her pain and deranged physique. The agony she experienced was further arranged on paper—creating approximately two-hundred paintings and drawings. Frida utilized her life experiences of physical and emotional pain to embolden her artistic lifestyle.

Diagnosed in 1913 with polio, Frida was forever marked—beginning the journey of physical pain for the entirety of her life. Rising above the odds, Frida was left only with a limp; however, like previously stated, Frida’s physical pain continued. An accident in September of 1925 “…broke her spinal

column, her collarbone, her ribs, her pelvis. Her already withered leg now suffered eleven fractures. Her left shoulder was now forever out of joint, one of her feet crushed,” (Fwentes 6). One can only try to conceptualize the feelings of despair that the artist was suffering from. Feeling so broken and discarnate, Frida approached her artistic element beginning with herself. Her body exemplified that of a painting—she disguised herself, making her beautiful. This quote concludes the measures taken: “The body is the temple of the soul. The face is the temple of the body. And when the body breaks, the soul has no other shrine except the face,” (3). Kahlo dressed herself to the fullest design, hiding the pain she was truly experiencing. Dressed to the fullest includes: “Necklaces, rings, white organdy headgear, flowery peasant blouses, garnet-colored shawls, long skirts…” (15). Her body was a canvas of beauty. To her, her beauty only resigned from the neck up, beneath those features were a broken body—pain. Her artistic abilities began to take form.
Due to her accident on the bus in 1925, Frida additionally took to her artistic lifestyle with substantial paintings and drawings. The chronic pain experienced by this talented woman began to be the muses of her artwork. A painter of her own reality, “…’Endurance of truth, reality, cruelty, and suffering. Never before had a woman put such agonized poetry on a canvas…’ For what she lives is what she paints,” (7). Kahlo’s internal darkness began to make an appearance in her art. Her pain was not a muting experience; instead, her work radiated with visible emotions. She truly transformed art to represent more than a typical muse, it became emotional. Fifty-five paintings produced by Frida are self-portraits. She painted herself because it was the subject she knew most about—plus, she was alone. Frida Kahlo’s paintings took many forms and artistic mannerisms. Intense and vibrant colors were two forms the Kahlo adopted in her work. Intensity was an excellent depiction of Kahlo’s physical pain and suffering. Kahlo accurately utilized her physical pain as an inspiration for her artistic life.
Emotional pain was endured by the talented woman.

The artist’s relationship with Diego was constantly being reflected upon in her artwork and painted diary entries. “[I] suffered two accidents in [my] life, the streetcar accident and Diego Rivera,” (13). She loved the man, but he committed mistakes that made Kahlo uneasy about their relationship. He was an unfaithful man, turning to other women and leaving behind Kahlo. Diego admits: “’The more I loved her, the more I wanted to hurt her,’” (13). A relationship based on emotional strife and confusion, Frida turned to her artistic work and painted her emotional turmoil. Focusing on a specific painting, The Two Fridas, the audience can have a visual representation of the emotions Frida poured into her paintings. The painting represents two opposite aspects of Frida’s life—the right represents the side Diego respected and loved opposite to the left painting, which represents Diego’s abandonment and unfaithfulness. The representation of the heart symbolizes Frida’s pain. The woman on the right has a whole heart, while the woman on the left is experiencing a broken heart. From this single painting it becomes apparent that Frida was motivated emotionally to paint and bring out her artistic side. Many of her painting involve the idea or image of

Diego.
Not only crippled physically, Frida experienced crippling emotional pain. Her drive and artistic abilities were products of her pain and suffering. Frida expands her artistic abilities by using her own body as a canvas and then transferring her emotions into paintings and drawings. In culmination, this quote focuses on the aspects of Frida’s life that gave way to her artistic lifestyle: “Through her art, Kahlo seems to come to terms with her own reality: The horrible, the painful, can lead us to the truth of self-knowledge. It then becomes beautiful simply because it identifies our very being, our innermost qualities,” (9).