The two Fridas: meaning and analysis
Frida Khalo (Coyoacán, July 6, 1907- July 13, 1954) is one of the most important Mexican painters from the first half of the 20th century and an iconic figure of that century who became a benchmark for her activism and the originality of her work. A controversial work due to its disruptive and unclassifiable nature. Thus, she herself never considered herself surrealist, always staying between surrealism and magical realism.
In this lesson from a PROFESSOR we offer the meaning and analysis of the two Fridas, one of Khalo's most emblematic works because it contains all the characteristic elements of her style.
Index
- Analysis of the two Fridas
- What meaning does the painting of Las dos Fridas have?
- Style of the two Fridas and symbols
Analysis of the two Fridas.
Is work of Frida Khalo this full of symbolism and shows us the image that the painter had of herself, immersing us in that universe of physical and emotional pain.
The two Fridas
It is the first painting to large oil painting of the artist, since Frida regularly painted on her bed in smaller formats. In this case, Frida opts for an oil canvas measuring 173 x 173 centimeters, her first large work of hers, ending it in 1939, just the year in which she was divorcing the artist Diego Rivera, famous muralist.On this large canvas, Frida paints a double self portrait in which two Fridas appear seated on a bench and with a gray background that shows a dark and stormy sky. The two figures are holding hands and staring at the viewer.
- Frida on the left She wears a white dress with flowers, Victorian style, and that shows us the European side of the artist, her father was German.
- While Frida on the right it portrays the indigenous part, the Mexican part of the artist. This Frida is dressed in a traditional Tehuana costume, holding in her hand a miniature portrait of Diego Rivera.
Another of the most striking aspects is how Frida shows her internal organs to reveal her pain in the most stark way. Thus, the Frida on the left has an open heart and a vein that falls on her skirt, showing pinched, but shedding blood. This heart also connects with that of Frida on the right, it is with her heart completely outside her chest and the one that also comes out is another vein that connects to the small portrait of Rivera.
What meaning does the painting of Las dos Fridas have?
Experts point out that this work was a kind of therapy to overcome the separation of Diego Rivera. The relationship between the young Frida and Rivera began with the dazzling of the painter before the brilliant and explosive personality of the muralist, already a figure in the art world. Rivera meets Frida four years after the traffic accident suffered by the young woman, falling in love with her and marrying, despite the reluctance generated by the bond in the painter's mother because of the womanizer he was painter.
Just as he feared, the relationship between the two painters was tumultuous, both being unfaithful, but the separation was also painful. Thus, one of the interpretations is that the painting represents the anguish that the separation generated. The painter is present in a portrait of Rivera that Frida on the right holds in her hands and in the missing piece in the heart of Frida on the left, a way of alluding to the rejection that her European connections aroused in him.
Frida she shows the duality of her identityof her, a common metaphor in her, reflecting the Mexican influence of her mother and the European influence of her her father, not renouncing them and trying to show with those linked hands the rational bond of that Union. The other connection, the arteries, represents the union of emotions. He knows that European Frida has a more traditional and conservative heritage, while Frida who has discovered with Rivera, the indigenous woman, is a woman who feels pride in her roots and feels united to her husband. Thus, Frida oscillates between empowerment and submission.
Frida pointed out that the work referred to the memory of an imaginary childhood friend, to later point out that he was trying to express the loneliness he felt for the separation from Rivera.
The two Fridas style and symbols.
Frida Khalo has a unique pictorial style,naiveY autodidact, in which the realism with fantasy and Mexican folklore.
Although André Bretón, one of the parents of the surrealismShe tried to claim her work as part of the surrealist movement, the painter rejected it, since she considered that she did not paint dreams or nightmares, only what she lived. Furthermore, Frida considered that her work also had a political tinge, defending Mexican nationalism and reviving folklore and traditional culture.
Frida also introduced in her paintings the feminist symbolism, showing in them her experiences as a woman: marriage, motherhood, fertility and a image of herself that flees from the conventions of feminine beauty by representing herself with hair facial.
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Bibliography
- Kahlo, Frida (2019), The Two Fridas: Memories written by Frida Khalo, Red Fox Books
- VVAA (2010), Frida Khalo: Encyclopedia of Art, Tikal
- VVAA (2003), Frida Khalo: Geniuses of Art, Susaeta
