This could be a new feature for the blog…we’ll see how it goes. I only thought of doing it this month as I have discovered a new inspirational artist, both as a person and as an artist. I offer no insightful opinion or any criticism of whichever artist I happen to write about, I haven't done the course ;-) It would merely be to introduce the artist just because I am enjoying their work at the time.
So this month it is Frida Kahlo.
As I wrote before, I am eagerly awaiting her biography. But my fascination started with her only last year really. I remember seeing one of her portraits in a magazine and was intrigued simply by the person I saw in the paintings. With strong Latino features, sombre expression but so full of colour. Then I recently saw the movie on her life staring Salma Hayek and was mesmerised. I was just captured by how she dressed, I would be like that every day! And she wore flowers in her hair, I LOVE that!
Frida Kahlo de Rivera (July 6, 1907 – July 13, 1954) was a Mexican painter. Her self-portraits are probably what she is known more for. Her vibrant and colourful work has been described for its “pain and passion”. Her work is apparently revered by feminists because of her simple and realistic approach to the female form and experience. I’m no feminist (I think!) and I just love her use of colour and brush. Her native culture and cultural tradition are features of her work and has been put into the naive or folk art category. These are new art movements for me so that’s my next research project! Even surrealism has been applied to her work. Subtly maybe, not quite a Dali..in my opinion, remember! Here’s a biography of her taken from http://www.fridakahlo.com/
Frida was one of four daughters born to a Hungarian-Jewish father and a mother of Spanish and Mexican Indian descent. She did not originally plan to become an artist. A survivor of polio, she entered a pre-med program in Mexico City. At the age of 18, she was seriously injured in a bus accident. She spent over a year in bed recovering from fractures to her spine, collarbone and ribs, a shattered pelvis, and shoulder and foot injuries. She endured more than 30 operations in her lifetime and during her convalescence she began to paint.
Her paintings, mostly self-portraits and still life, were deliberately naïve, and filled with the colors and forms of Mexican folk art. At 22 she married the famous Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, 20 years her senior. Their stormy, passionate relationship survived infidelities, the pressures of careers, divorce, remarriage, Frida's bi-sexual affairs, her poor health and her inability to have children. Frida once said: "I suffered two grave accidents in my life…One in which a streetcar knocked me down and the other was Diego." The streetcar accident left her crippled physically and Rivera crippled her emotionally.
During her lifetime, Frida created some 200 paintings, drawings and sketches related to her experiences in life, physical and emotional pain and her turbulent relationship with Diego. She produced 143 paintings, 55 of which are self-portraits. When asked why she painted so many self-portraits, Frida replied: "Because I am so often alone....because I am the subject I know best."
In 1953, when Frida Kahlo had her first solo exhibition in Mexico (the only one held in her native country during her lifetime), a local critic wrote:
"It is impossible to separate the life and work of this extraordinary person. Her paintings are her biography."
At the time of her exhibition opening, Frida's health was such that her Doctor told her that she was not to leave her bed. She insisted that she was going to attend her opening, and, in Frida style, she did. She arrived in an ambulance and her bed in the back of a truck. She was placed in her bed and four men carried her in to the waiting guests.
Both Frida and Diego were very active in the Communist Party in Mexico. In early July 1954, Frida made her last public appearance, when she participated in a Communist street demonstration.
Soon after, on July 13th, 1954, at the age of 47, Frida passed away. On the day after her death, mourners gathered at the crematorium to witness the cremation of Mexico's greatest and most shocking painter. Soon to be an international icon, Frida Kahlo knew how to give her fans one last unforgettable goodbye. As the cries of her admirers filled the room, the sudden blast of heat from the open incinerator doors caused her body to bolt upright. Her hair, now on fire from the flames, blazed around her head like a halo. Frida's lips seemed to break into a seductive grin just as the doors closed. Her last diary entry read: "I hope the end is joyful - and I hope never to return - Frida.".
Her ashes were placed in a pre-Columbian urn which is on display in the "Blue House" that she shared with Rivera. One year after her death, Rivera gave the house to the Mexican government to become a museum. Diego Rivera died in 1957. On July 12th, 1958, the “Blue House” was officially opened as the “Museo Frida Kahlo”.
Frida has been described as: "…one of history's grand divas…a tequila-slamming, dirty joke-telling smoker, bi-sexual that hobbled about her bohemian barrio in lavish indigenous dress and threw festive dinner parties for the likes of Leon Trotsky, poet Pablo Neruda, Nelson Rockefeller, and her on-again, off-again husband, muralist Diego Rivera."
Today, more than half a century after her death, her paintings fetch more money than any other female artist. A visit to the Museo Frida Kahlo is like taking a step back in time. All of her personal effects are displayed throughout the house and everything seems to be just as she left it. One gets the feeling that she still lives there but has just briefly stepped out to allow you to tour her private sanctuary. She is gone now but her legacy will live on forever….
One of the first shots of the film is of her house in Coyoacan. Bright blue walls, colourful flowers and plants, pieces of art. I would love to have a house that I could just paint and design for ME, in my style, to call my own. (I once painted our living room orange. Every wall. With terracotta stencils.) So the house she lived in for most of her life is now a museum...here is a link to the Trip Advisor reviews. It's on my wish list!
Through my research on Frida I found this great post highlighting the person Frida was. Never embarrassed and true to herself. I'm trying to live this way! Thanks amber, a lovely and inspiring post about this incredible woman.
As I wrote before, I am eagerly awaiting her biography. But my fascination started with her only last year really. I remember seeing one of her portraits in a magazine and was intrigued simply by the person I saw in the paintings. With strong Latino features, sombre expression but so full of colour. Then I recently saw the movie on her life staring Salma Hayek and was mesmerised. I was just captured by how she dressed, I would be like that every day! And she wore flowers in her hair, I LOVE that!
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