Frida Kahlo and the Latin Culture in the 20th Century

"I was born a bitch. I was born a painter."- Frida Kahlo

The 20th Century is marked in history as the time where women began to speak for themselves. It was a time where women had opportunities to play an active role on social issues and within the art world. Through technological, philosophical, and cultural changes both the United States and Western Europe began enjoying greater access to art markets and educational opportunities. This was a time where art schools began admitting women and they were allowed to work with nude models and paint in public spaces. Due to the technological advancement during this period, modern sculpting and photography were two components of the new art world that women remained key figures in. Women also played an important role in performance art, electronic and digital media, and conceptual art. This was a time where even newer forms of art were coming to light such as; minimalism, abstraction, and expressionism. As opportunity to grow as a woman in the twentieth century, so did opposition. This was a century where many of the rights women have today or continue fighting for were started. Through media outlets and artworks women challenged the status quo and the unequal representation of women in the art world.

A Short History of the 20th Century 
This video serves as a means to explain what was going on around the time that Frida Khalo was creating her masterpieces.

One of the amazing women to contribute to the phenomenon that was already occurring was Frida Kahlo. A woman who ripped her heart out and gave it all to the public through her art work. Her paintings were personal which made them political. As author Whitney Chadwick writes in her fourth edition of "Women, Art, and Society" that Khalo, "invests her painting with a haunting complexity and a narrative quality disturbing in its ambiguity" (313). She embraced her Latin American roots and made sure she was the hero of her own life story. In her words, "Since I faced a life of suffering, I decided to make it my cross to bear. Instead of letting my infirmities keep me from fulfilling my ambitions, I used them as fuel for my art" (Guerilla Girls, 78).

Henry Ford Hospital, 1932
Depiction of her first miscarriage with husband Diego Rivera

Frida was mestiza, meaning she was partially European and Spanish/Indigenous. She embraced her culture by wearing "peasant clothes, jewelry, and hairstyles" (Guerilla Girls, 78) while also having "false teeth encrusted with gold and gaudy jewels" (Guerilla Girls, 78). She was not your ordinary painter, much less the average woman whom society would simply expect to sit still and look pretty. She was very vocal and passionate about her culture and artwork. Having been born in Mexico City on July 6th, just a few years prior to the Mexican Revolution she had a lot of race pride but also depicted it in her work. As she writes, "I never gave up paintings, because mine were based on retablos: Mexican devotional paintings that depicted misfortunes and asked for miracles" (Guerilla Girls, 79). If her paintings did not depict personal events in her life, they were often paintings illustrating the Mexican culture.

 

The Broken Column, 1944

During this time the Latin American culture struggled with problems that many third world countries did and that was the constant dependence of Western countries. However, Mexico remained being one of the biggest focal points during this time due to the Mexican Revolution and the upheaval amongst the people residing there. The political system was corrupt and workers, Indians, and peasants were repressed. There was a realignment of economies, a manufacture spurt forcing countries to rely on themselves, and eventually face the truth that the United States was the reigning foreign power/alliance. However, the art world (especially in Mexico) was filled with romanticism of Indian heritage, Christian values, and recapturing the past and plans for the future. Popular culture was focusing on celebrating the war heros during this time. However, Kahlo's work is celebrated in her native roots "as emblematic of national and indigenous tradition and by feminists for its uncompromising depiction of the female experience and form" ("A Tribute to Frida Kahlo,"1). Without hesitation, she never accepted being labeled as a surrealist and would often be quoted saying, "Thank you misters, but I am in my own world, not yours" (Guerilla Girls, 79).

The Last Supper, 1940

Frida has been best 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" ("A Tribute to Frida Kahlo," 1). However, her art pieces speak for themselves and her active role for the expansion of neo-Mexican culture was discovered or better understood only after her death. Frida's self portraits depicted both her pain and sexuality after getting into a car accident that left her immobile and needing to undergo nearly thirty surgeries to recover at a very young age. As she was quoted once saying, "I paint myself because I am often alone and I am the subject I know best." She also worked on pieces that depicted her childhood. Running into her home at the sound of gunfire in her poor hometown and the sight of revolutionaries jumping fences into her backyard, which her mother would often serve a meal to.


El Autobus, 1929

Each of her 200 paintings were painted in vibrant colors to celebrate her indigenous culture and emphasize on her dramatic symbolism. Being that her career as a painter started as she laid in bed recovering from the tragic accident, it is amazing to recall how phenomenal of a woman she is. Over the course of years she received little recognition while she was alive but was ultimately one of the first Mexican artist of the 20th century to have her work purchased by an internationally acclaimed museum ( The Louvre) in Europe.





The Frame, 1937-1938 (Piece bought by The Louvre)

In present time, she's remembered as being one of the most controversial women in Mexican culture who in her own way was apart of the Feminist Movement occurring abroad within the United States. Her work along with her ashes are displayed at the Museo Frida Kahlo in Coyoacán, Mexico City. She gave us her entire life story through her work; what it meant to be multicultural woman living during her time in such a vibrant country.

 The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo | PBS America

Short documentary remembering her almost 50 years after her death, Frida Kahlo is acclaimed as one of the great painters of the 20th century.

Bibliography:

1. "WELCOME TO FRIDA KAHLO WEBSITE »." A Tribute to Frida Kahlo (Biography). Frida Kahlo Website, 6 Jan. 2010. Web. 29 Mar. 2015. http://www.fridakahlo.com/.
2. "Frida Kahlo Biography." Frida Kahlo Biography and The Complete Works. The Frida Kahlo Foundation, 1 Jan. 2002. Web. 29 Mar. 2015. http://www.frida-kahlo-foundation.org/biography.html.
3. Girls, Guerilla. "The 20th Century Women of the "Isms"" The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. New York: Penguin, 1998. 58-89. Print.
4. Chadwick, Whitney. "Modern Representation: The Female Body." Women, Art, and Society. 4th ed. Singapore: Thames & Hudson, 1805. 279-315. Print.