Frida Kahlo: A story of overcoming, full of contradictions. The story of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo

Text: Maria Mikhantieva

A Frida Kahlo retrospective is being held in St. Petersburg until the end of April.- a great Mexican artist who became the soul and heart of women's painting worldwide. It is customary to tell Frida’s life through the story of overcoming physical pain, however, as is usually the case, this is only one aspect of a complex and multifaceted path. Frida Kahlo was not just the wife of the renowned painter Diego Rivera or a symbol of mental and physical strength - all her life the artist wrote, starting from her own internal contradictions, complex relationships with independence and love, talking about the one she knew best - herself.

The biography of Frida Kahlo is more or less known to everyone who watched Julie Taymor's film with Salma Hayek: carefree childhood and youth, a terrible accident, an almost accidental passion for painting, meeting the artist Diego Rivera, marriage and the eternal status of “everything is complicated.” Physical pain, mental pain, self-portraits, abortions and miscarriages, communism, romance novels, worldwide fame, slow fading and long-awaited death: “I hope that my departure will be successful and I will not return again,” the sleeping Frida flies into eternity on the bed.

We don’t know whether the departure itself was successful, but for the first twenty years after it it seemed that Frida’s wish had been fulfilled: she was forgotten everywhere except her native Mexico, where a house-museum was opened almost immediately. In the late 1970s, in the wake of interest in women's art and neo-Mexicanism, her works began to appear occasionally at exhibitions. However, in 1981 in the dictionary contemporary art The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Art gave her just one line: “Kahlo, Frida. See Rivera, Diego Maria.”

“There were two accidents in my life: one was when a bus crashed into a tram, the other was Diego,” said Frida. The first accident made her start painting, the second made her an artist. The first one felt physical pain all my life, the second caused mental pain. These two experiences subsequently became the main themes of her paintings. If there really was a car accident fatal accident(Frida was supposed to be on another bus, but got off halfway to look for a forgotten umbrella), the difficult relationship (after all, Diego Rivera was not the only one) was inevitable due to the contradictions of her nature, in which strength and independence were combined with sacrifice and obsession.

"Frida and Diego Rivera", 1931

I had to learn to be strong as a child: first by helping my father survive attacks of epilepsy, and then by coping with the consequences of polio. Frida played football and boxing; at school she was part of a gang of “cachuchas” - hooligans and intellectuals. When the management of the educational institution invited Rivera, then already a recognized master, to carry out the mural painting, she rubbed soap on the steps of the stairs to see how this man with the face of a toad and the physique of an elephant would slip. She considered girls' company banal, preferred to be friends with boys and dated the most popular and intelligent of them, who was also several grades older.

But having fallen in love, Frida seemed to lose the mind that she so valued in people. She could literally pursue the object of her passion, bombarding her with letters, seducing and manipulating - all in order to then play the role of a faithful companion. This was how her marriage to Diego Rivera was at first. They both cheated, separated and got back together, but, if you believe the memories of friends, Frida more often gave in, trying to preserve the relationship. “She treated him like a beloved dog,” one friend recalled. “He’s with her like he’s with his favorite thing.” Even in the “wedding” portrait of “Frida and Diego Rivera” only one of the two artists is depicted with professional attributes, a palette and brushes - and this is not Frida.

While Diego painted frescoes for days on end, spending the night on scaffolding, she brought him lunch baskets, took care of bills, saved on much-needed medical procedures (Diego spent a lot of money on his collection of pre-Columbian statues), listened attentively and accompanied him to exhibitions. Under the influence of her husband, her paintings also changed: if Frida painted her very first portraits, imitating Renaissance artists from art albums, then thanks to Diego, the national traditions of Mexico glorified by the revolution penetrated into them: the naivety of the retablo, Indian motifs and the aesthetics of Mexican Catholicism with its theatricalization of suffering, combining image of bleeding wounds with a splendor of flowers, lace and ribbons.

"Alejandro Gomez Arias", 1928

To please her husband, she even changed her jeans and leather jackets to full skirts and became a “tehuana.” This image was completely devoid of any authenticity, since Frida combined clothes and accessories from different social groups and eras, and could wear an Indian skirt with a Creole blouse and earrings by Picasso. In the end, her ingenuity turned this masquerade into a separate form of art: after starting to dress for her husband, she continued to create unique images for her own pleasure. In her diary, Frida noted that the costume is also a self-portrait; her dresses became characters in paintings, and now accompany them at exhibitions. If the paintings were a reflection of the inner storm, then the costumes became its armor. It is no coincidence that a year after the divorce, “Self-portrait with cropped hair” appeared, in which a men’s suit took the place of skirts and ribbons - Frida once posed in something similar for a family portrait long before meeting Diego.

The first serious attempt to get out of the influence of her husband was the decision to give birth. A natural birth was impossible, but there was still hope for a caesarean section. Frida was rushing about. On the one hand, she passionately wanted to continue the family line, to extend further that red ribbon, which she would later depict in the painting “My Grandparents, My Parents and Me,” to get “little Diego” at her disposal. On the other hand, Frida understood that the birth of a child would tie her to home, interfere with her work and alienate her from Rivera, who was categorically against children. In her first letters to family friend Dr. Leo Eloisseur, pregnant Frida asks which option would cause less harm to her health, but without waiting for an answer, she decides to continue the pregnancy and does not back down. Paradoxically, the choice that is usually imposed on a woman “by default”, in Frida’s case, becomes a rebellion against her husband’s guardianship.

Unfortunately, the pregnancy ended in miscarriage. Instead of “little Diego”, “Henry Ford Hospital” was born - one of the saddest works, which began a series of “bloody” paintings. Perhaps this was the first time in the history of art when an artist spoke with extreme, almost physiological honesty about women’s pain, so much so that men’s legs gave way. Four years later, the organizer of her Paris exhibition, Pierre Collet, did not even immediately decide to exhibit these paintings, considering them too shocking.

Finally, that part of a woman’s life that had always been bashfully hidden from prying eyes was revealed
in a work of art

Misfortunes haunted Frida: after the death of her child, she experienced the death of her mother, and one can only guess what a blow Diego’s next affair was for her, this time with her younger sister. She, however, blamed herself and was ready to forgive, just not to become a “hysterical” - her thoughts on this matter are painfully similar to the age-old thesis that “”. But in the case of Frida, humility and the ability to endure went hand in hand with black humor and irony.

Feeling her inferiority, the insignificance of her feelings compared to men’s, she brought this experience to the point of absurdity in the film “A Few Small Pricks”. “I just poked her a few times,” said a man who stabbed his girlfriend to death in court. Having learned about this story from the newspapers, Frida wrote a work full of sarcasm, literally drenched in blood (spots of red paint “splashed out” even onto the frame). A calm killer stands above the bloody body of a woman (his hat is a hint of Diego), and above, like a mockery, floats the name written on a ribbon held by doves, so similar to a wedding decoration.

Among Rivera's fans, there is an opinion that Frida's paintings are “salon painting.” Perhaps, at first, Frida herself would have agreed with this. She was always critical of her own work, did not seek to make friends with gallerists and dealers, and when someone bought her paintings, she often complained that the money could have been spent more profitably. There was some coquetry in this, but, frankly speaking, it is difficult to feel confident when your husband is a recognized master who works all day long, and you are a self-taught person who can hardly find time for painting between housework and medical operations. “The work of the aspiring artist is definitely significant and threatens even her laurel-crowned famous husband,” wrote the press release for Frida’s first New York exhibition (1938); “little Frida” - that’s what the author of the TIME publication called her. By that time, the “beginner” “little one” had been writing for nine years.

"Roots", 1943

But the lack of high expectations gave complete freedom. “I write myself because I spend a lot of time alone and because I am the topic that I know best,” Frida said, and in addressing this “topic” there was not only subjectivity, but also subjectivity. The women who posed for Diego turned into nameless allegories in his frescoes; Frida has always been the main character. This position was strengthened by doubling the portraits: she often painted herself simultaneously in different images and hypostases. The large canvas “Two Fridas” was created during the divorce proceedings; on it, Frida wrote herself “beloved” (on the right, in a Tehuan costume) and “unloved” (in a Victorian dress, bleeding), as if declaring that she was now her own “other half.” In the painting "My Birth", created shortly after her first miscarriage, she depicts herself as a newborn, but apparently also associates it with the figure of a mother, whose face is hidden.

The New York exhibition mentioned above helped Frida become freer. For the first time, she felt independent: she went to New York alone, met people, received orders for portraits and started affairs, not because her husband was too busy, but because she liked it that way. The exhibition was generally received favorably. Of course, there were critics who said that Frida’s paintings were too “gynecological,” but this was rather a compliment: finally, that part of a woman’s life, which theorists of “female destiny” had been talking about for centuries, but which was always bashfully hidden from prying eyes, was revealed in a work of art.

The New York exhibition was followed by a Paris exhibition, organized with the direct participation of Andre Breton, who considered Frida a prominent surrealist. She agreed to the exhibition, but carefully rejected surrealism. There are many symbols on Frida’s canvases, but there are no hints: everything is obvious, like an illustration from an anatomical atlas, and at the same time flavored with excellent humor. The dreaminess and decadence inherent in the surrealists irritated her; their nightmares and Freudian projections seemed like childish babble compared to what she experienced in reality: “Ever since [the accident], I have been obsessed with the idea of ​​depicting things as my eyes see them, and nothing more". “She has no illusions,” Rivera chimed in.

roots, stems and fruits, and in the diary entries the refrain is “Diego is my child.”

It became impossible to be a mother to my husband after a series of spinal surgeries and amputations: first a pair of toes on the right foot, then the entire lower leg. Frida habitually endured the pain, but was afraid of losing mobility. Nevertheless, she was brave: when preparing for the operation, she put on one of the best dresses, and for the prosthesis she ordered a red leather boot with embroidery. Despite her serious condition, dependence on narcotic painkillers and mood swings, she was preparing for the 25th anniversary of her first wedding and even persuaded Diego to take her to a communist demonstration. Continuing to work with all her strength, at some point she thought about making her paintings more politicized, which seemed unthinkable after so many years spent depicting personal experiences. Perhaps, if Frida had survived the illness, we would have gotten to know her from a new, unexpected side. But pneumonia, caught at that very demonstration, ended the artist’s life on July 13, 1954.

“For twelve years of work, everything was excluded that did not come from the inner lyrical motivation that made me write,” Frida explained in an application for a Guggenheim Foundation grant in 1940, “Because my themes were always my own feelings, the state of my mind and responses to what life put into me, I often embodied all this in the image of myself, which was the most sincere and real, so I could express everything that was happening in me and in the outside world.”

"My Birth", 1932

For more than half a century, the fate of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo has not only fascinated art critics and admirers of her talent, but is also considered a standard of perseverance and courage in the struggle of life.

33 misfortunes

All her life, Frida wove the thin lace of the legend with her own hands, and then draped herself picturesquely in this “shawl” with a complex, confusing pattern - effectively, as Spanish women can do (however, her mother’s blood was mixed with a lot of blood, in particular, Indian). Those who have read the famous diary of the artist are in vain to think that they know something undoubtedly genuine about this amazing woman. She loved to lead “hunters” into impassable thickets, throwing them off the scent. The legend continues to this day, growing in detail right in the Blue House in Coyocan, a suburb of Mexico City, where she spent her childhood and where she lived with her husband, Diego Riveira, in a destructive marriage for who knows how many years. Judging by the inscription on the patio wall, almost thirty, but in fact the couple lived both abroad and in various workshops at home. We were divorced for a year, and then walked down the aisle again. Today the Blue House is a museum, and God himself ordered the staff to invent spectacular fables and juggle dates.

One thing is obvious: she was born on July 6, 1907 (however, this is not one hundred percent), and died on July 13, 1954 (this is already reliable). And it is also quite obvious that from early childhood, fate either began - in spite of everything - to prepare Frida Kahlo for a great destiny, or tried with all her might to prevent the artist from taking her place in the complex hierarchy of world art.

At the age of six, a girl from a well-to-do family fell ill with polio (as is known, the disease primarily affected poorly nourished children of the slums) and became an object of ridicule because of her lameness and noticeably thinning right leg. The ill-fated limb annoyed God so much that after forty years he easily allowed it to be amputated. The cheerful Frida then commented: “What does a man who flies need legs for?” In the meantime, she swam, tried to play football with the boys, tried to master boxing techniques, as if anticipating that she would have to fight all her life: with herself, the misunderstanding of those around her, evil fate. Another in her place would have leaned back on the lace pillows with a sigh, letting events take their course, and fifteen-year-old Frida, having pulled on a pair of stockings to make her legs thicker, went to the Prepatorium - National preparatory school. She began to study medicine (special books, due to constant demand, never collected dust on her shelves in the company of an embryo preserved in alcohol): she was smart, she understood that knowledge of this kind would be useful to her. True, I had no idea how soon.

Eyewitnesses from fellow students claimed that Frida never had a complex (just think, lameness!) - but what about huge eyes and beautiful hair? She even began to flirt with the visiting artist Diego Riveira, who decorated the Prepatorium with the painting “Creation”. In 1929 he would become her husband. But we still had to live to see that. Frida turned eighteen, she felt quite well, but, as Bulgakov’s admirers would say, Annushka had already left the house and managed to spill the oil. A car accident, when the girl was literally pierced by a tram arch, radically changed her plans, but gave her a calling. Numerous fractures of the spine, pelvis, and ribs were sufficient reason to swaddle and corset the rebel (by the way, painting medical corsets with political symbols and butterflies later became her know-how). My father ordered a special stretcher so that he could work while lying down. What else should a girl doomed to immobility do? Frida felt like an artist.

Married - don't attack...

She climbed out and stood on her feet, but the pain never left her far from her. But Frida didn’t give up: she couldn’t dance at parties, but she sang loudly folk songs, did not have the opportunity to flaunt in short dresses, but became addicted to long, bright skirts (and then figured out a spectacular hairstyle with ribbons and flowers), did not become a doctor, but developed a passion for canvases and stretchers. Of course, at first no one was particularly interested in her work; they said it was just ordinary primitivism, the conscientious efforts of an art school graduate. It was then that Frida Kahlo would be classified as a surrealist; one of her paintings - “Roots” - (although there was no trace of any painting there, only a metal board and oil) at Sotheby's auction in 2005 was valued at $ 7 million, and a small London's Tate gallery will suddenly become famous thanks to Kahlo's solo exhibition. She truly had her roots in her native soil, and her growing patriotism year after year gave her paintings an originality, seducing the viewer with a multitude of symbols and Aztec fetishes.

Among Frida's works there are many self-portraits. It’s not that she was narcissistic, but, in her words, she wrote herself “because it’s the topic I know best.” A beautiful, serious girl with a barely noticeable fluff above her plump lip is looking at us. Actress Salma Hayek “built” exactly the same mustache for herself after actually shaving in the Oscar-winning film “Frida” (2002). She shocked millions of viewers with the external resemblance of the artist’s relatives, and with her hard-won authenticity.

And yet, the main theme of Kahlo’s work was embodied pain. It was she who pierced the neck with thorns in “Portrait with a Crown of Thorns”, splashed in a dim bath on the canvas “What the Water Gave Me”, performed bloody stains in the painting “Just a few scratches.” The latter was “inspired” by Diego Rivera, who cheated on his wife with his sister-in-law and brushed off the reproaches: “Just think, it’s just a scratch.” It is not known which suffering is greater - physical or mental. “There have been two accidents in my life,” said Frida. - The first is a tram, the second is Diego. The second one is worse."

Maximilian Voloshin, who met Rivera in Paris, called the artist a “good cannibal.” And not only because the crazy Mexican loved to stun polite guests with stories about his own cannibalism. He joked like that. At home he was simply called Puzan and a womanizer. But Rivera still had something of the cannibal. For example, at his own wedding, after taking a sip of tequila, he scared the newlywed to tears, snatching a weapon that had come from nowhere and starting indiscriminate firing. If anyone thinks that this is the custom at Mexican weddings, they are greatly mistaken. It was exclusive.

Dark business

Rivera generally turned out to be an inventor and, in some cases, even a dreamer. He joined the Communist Party and brought his wife into politics. However, with her innate sense of justice, she did not resist too much, and then became completely carried away by a noble cause: for example, she and her husband, enjoying fame and respect, successfully raised funds for the Republicans who fought against Franco in Spain. Things got worse when Rivera began flirting with his friend Siqueiros. It all started with his trip to Soviet Union. In Moscow famous artist met the famous myth-maker, leader of the Fourth International, Trotsky. And soon, fleeing Stalin’s wrath, Lev Davidovich and his wife, Natalya Sedykh, ended up in Mexico. In the port of Tampico, the disgraced couple was met by Frida Kahlo - Diego was in the hospital at that time. It was assumed that the elderly political emigrants would live indefinitely in the Blue House. The visitation ended unexpectedly soon. They say that the connoisseur of beauty and world harmony began, openly, to look after the hostess. Whether the giggly Frida encouraged these signs of attention (“there is nothing more precious than laughter, with its help you can break away from yourself, become weightless”) or amused herself in her own way, we will never know (the self-portrait painted as a gift to a die-hard Bolshevik turned out to be unclaimed). But history has left us with a genuine, albeit still dark, story with the Mercadier ice ax. In any case, the Rivera-Kahlo family became involved in the murder of Trotsky. If only because Rivera was friends with Siqueiros, a participant in the first, unsuccessful attempt, and Frida was seen in a cafe with Ramon Mercader the evening before the massacre. The couple had to explain themselves to the police.

On a foreign land

But before these sad events, Frida managed to escape from her tired routine and see Paris. This happened when Lev Davidovich was still very much alive, and Andre Breton, a prominent surrealist poet who clung to the Communist Party, came to visit him. It was he who invited Frida to get acquainted with beautiful France and show the people at least a few paintings.

Paris in 1938 didn't really impress our exotic hummingbird. She missed the sun bright colors homeland, they could not be replaced even by the assorted exhibits of the exhibition of Mexican art, of which it became an attraction and decoration. She herself, all in frills and necklaces, was treated like some exquisite Aztec artifact. Eager for everything new, Elsa Schiaparelli a quick fix I even figured out the “Mm Rivera” dress and the perfume that characterized the mood of those weeks - Shoching.

Frida was dragged to numerous “occasional dinners”, toasters peppered the eulogies magic word"surrealism". Frida, like Salvador Dali in his time, swept away the boundaries: “My paintings are a revelation itself. I hate surrealism! Nothing helped: French artists loved labels. Many of them, regardless of the signs, were delighted with the originality of the paintings and with “Mr. Rivera” herself. Picasso was amazed on the spot. At a dinner he arranged with his own hands, he even presented the “overseas orchid” with strange earrings in the shape of a hand with outstretched fingers. And yet, the real result of the trip was something else - the painting “Frame” was bought by the Louvre.

Frida was greeted no worse in America, where she and her husband lived for several years after the story with Trotsky. Rivera worked on murals in New York and San Francisco, and Frida was treated in a clinic for alcoholism and nervous exhaustion. In total, she underwent more than thirty operations on the spine, and her loved ones did not have the courage to reproach her for her addiction to painkillers and soft drugs. Every day brought new pain and disappointment. This "Little Chamois" was studded with darts worse than St. Sebastian. Blood was oozing.

In native arms

Frida Kahlo was not a cosmopolitan by nature. Hometown meant a lot to her. Ironically, the artist’s only solo exhibition was held here only a year before her death. Frida was once again in the hospital when her friends decided to surprise her. The pneumonia she suffered the day before and the amputation of her leg, where infection began, did not prevent her from enjoying the long-awaited triumph. She ordered the bed to be placed in the middle exhibition hall and, reclining like a queen, accepted congratulations, periodically singing her favorite songs in a loud voice. This was an unconditional triumph of the spirit over weak flesh.

Frida died of a pulmonary embolism after untreated pneumonia. By the way, during her illness, the obstinate patient did not wrap herself in blankets, as the doctors prescribed, but participated in a four-hour protest against the entry of American troops into Guatemala. This was all she was.

IN last days and throughout the night the husband kept vigil at the bedside, as if confirming the strength of his love and devotion. But, as they say, everything is fine in time. The marriage brought Frida endless pain, three unsuccessful pregnancies and disappointment, which she tried to drown out in her creativity. They say that in the crematorium, right at the furnace doors, caught by a hot wave, she suddenly rose up, as if reaching out to the fire. Flame to flame...

The Mexican artist is widely known in her homeland. Some even manage to profit from this. Ten years ago, Venezuelan entrepreneur Carlos Dorado created the Frida Kalho Corporation Foundation, which received the right to use the ringing name. Frida Kahlo today is not only paintings, but also cosmetics, underwear, corsets, shoes, jewelry, ceramics, beer and even the brand of her favorite tequila. The Calo Rivera couple's portrait appears on the 500-peso banknotes. But with such fair fame, Frida Kahlo’s paintings do not become any less mysterious; they can be deciphered endlessly. Blok’s lines suit this wonderful and misunderstood woman: “What was crying in her, what was struggling, what did she expect from us?”...

Text: Darina Lunina

The article presents paintings by Frida Kahlo with titles and unnecessary rantings of the author of the article, a brief discussion of the origins of the work of the Mexican artist.

True, Frida did not really manage to taste the fruits of her success, like Salvadorich. Frida Kahlo's work is the fruit of suffering, pain, sadness and failure.

What is the phenomenon of Frida’s popularity? Why did such a seemingly ambiguous and difficult-to-understand artist become so popular among?

Painting "My Birth"

Paintings by Frida Kahlo. What is the secret of the artist’s popularity?

Most of Frida Kahlo's paintings are quite creepy; she clearly wasn't always strong in anatomy either. Her work can be called naive rather than technically strong. Take the same one - she clearly drew better, and her pictures were nicer. It is unlikely that anyone would have the desire to hang a picture of Frida near the crib, unless he is a crazy person with a syndrome of searching for deeper meaning.

And yet, few of the surrealists (not counting Salvador Dali) achieved such fame. And among female surrealists, Frida Kahlo is perhaps the only one.

So what is the strength, brother? I think the secret of Frida’s success is that despite her obvious naivety and frightening images (or rather thanks to), the artist’s work produces a very strong impression. The foundation of any creativity is, in fact, the strength of the emotions that it evokes, whether pleasant or not.

When you look at the paintings of the Mexican artist, it’s as if you feel with your skin all the pain that she suffered. The sincerity of her work is amazing. And some naivety in this case only enhances the impression. Frida Kahlo's strength lies in the fact that she never followed the crowd's lead, but simply poured out onto the canvas everything that had accumulated in her heart, without regard to how shocking it would be. It would seem like a paradox to be successful with the crowd without following the lead of the crowd.

The work of Frida Kahlo as a reflection of the artist’s life.

I think another thing is that Frida Kahlo lived a very interesting, albeit unhappy, life. Her life was full of dramas, tragedies, misfortunes, betrayals and acute emotions. It is not surprising that such a juicy story interested the directors. Specifically, Julie Taymor, who in 2002 released a good, serviceable film based on the life of Frida.

After all, that’s what we love, right? - watch other people's dramas while lying in soft beds to tickle your nerves. By the way, if you haven’t seen the film yet, I highly recommend it. Really too sad. The author sobbed as *censored* even shed a stingy male tear.

In short, Frida’s recipe on how to become famous artist after death (and quite a bit before).

• You get into an accident and suffer from pain from broken bones all your life.
• Do you want normal family life and therefore you choose the most inveterate womanizer in your country (Diego Rivera), who is also fat and scary.
• All your life you want to have children, but you can’t because of health problems.
• You tell people what you think about them to their face. Always. Everyone.
• You drown out your pain with alcohol and tobacco.
• You pour it all out onto the canvas.

Okay, this is all stupid black humor. The steadfastness with which this fragile woman endured all adversity only adds to the tragedy. And fate, as if specifically to test one’s strength, sent one misfortune after another.

A mixture of different painting styles in the paintings of Frida Kahlo.

Frida is actually a very deep and interesting artist and still amazes with her inner strength and charisma. Unlike Salvador Dali or Magritte, Frida’s images are distinguished by greater directness, which does not detract from their depth.

Frida Kahlo's paintings clearly show the influence of Mexican muralism or Mexican monumental painting. The brightest and well-known representative This direction is, suddenly, Frida’s husband, Diego Rivera. Mexican muralism is such a bizarre mixture of social media. realism with elements of cubism and symbolism, seasoned with Mexican flavor.

In general, in the work of the Mexican artist there is a lot of different things mixed in - here there is surrealism, and muralism, and symbolism, and in some places there are elements folk art- all sorts of Mexican flowers and patterns.

In general, this is not surprising, because Frida Kahlo painted from the heart and never really bothered with belonging to any movement of painting. For example, Frida never associated herself with surrealism. In fact, Fried can be categorized as an artist who “what I see/feel, I sing.”

Frida Kahlo's paintings with titles.

Well, that’s actually why you all came here. To see the title of the painting, you need to hover over the image. Well, the WordPress gallery works like that, but I’m too lazy to change anything. Navigable and clickable.

Moses. My dress hangs here.

Sun and life.

Broken column.

Suicide of Dorothy Hale. Fawn. Still life with a parrot and a flag.

The flamboyant Mexican artist Frida Kahlo is best known to the public for her symbolic self-portraits and depictions of Mexican and Amerindian cultures. Known for her strong and strong-willed character, as well as her communist sentiments, Kahlo left an indelible mark not only on Mexican but also on world painting.

As one of the few female students at the National Preparatory School, Frida became interested in political discourse already during her studies. In later life, she even became a member of the Mexican Communist Party and the Young Communist League.

It was during her studies that Frida first met the then famous wall painting master Diego Rivera. Kahlo often watched Rivera as he worked on the Creation fresco in the school auditorium. Some sources claim that Frida already spoke about her desire to give birth to a child from the muralist.

Rivera encouraged creative work Frida, but the union of two bright personalities was very unstable. Most of the time, Diego and Frida lived separately, moving into houses or apartments next door. Frida was upset by her husband’s numerous infidelities, and she was especially hurt by Diego’s relationship with her younger sister Cristina. In response to the family betrayal, Kahlo cut off her famous black locks and captured the resentment and pain she suffered in the painting “Memory (Heart).”

Nevertheless, the sensual and ardent artist also had affairs on the side. Among her lovers are the famous American avant-garde sculptor of Japanese origin Isamu Noguchi, and the communist refugee Leon Trotsky, who took refuge in Frida's Blue House (Casa Azul) in 1937. Kahlo was bisexual, so her romantic relationships with women are also known, for example, with the American pop artist Josephine Baker.

Despite betrayals and affairs on both sides, Frida and Diego, even breaking up in 1939, reunited again and remained spouses until the artist’s death.

The husband's infidelity and inability to give birth to a child are clearly depicted in Kahlo's paintings. The embryos, fruits and flowers depicted in many of Frida's paintings symbolize precisely her inability to bear children, which was the cause of her extremely depressive states. Thus, the painting “Henry Ford Hospital” depicts a nude artist and symbols of her infertility - an embryo, a flower, damaged hip joints, connected to her by bloody vein-like threads. At the New York exhibition in 1938, this painting was presented under the title “Lost Desire.”

Features of creativity

The uniqueness of Frida’s paintings lies in the fact that all her self-portraits are not limited to depicting solely her appearance. Each canvas is rich in details from the artist’s life: each depicted object is symbolic. It is also significant how exactly Frida depicted the connections between objects: most of the connections are blood vessels that feed the heart.

Each self-portrait contains clues to the meaning of what is depicted: the artist herself always imagined herself serious, without a shadow of a smile on her face, but her feelings are expressed through the prism of perception of the background, color palette, and objects surrounding Frida.

Already in 1932, more graphic and surreal elements were visible in Kahlo’s work. Frida herself was alien to surrealism with far-fetched and fantastic plots: the artist expressed real suffering on her canvases. The connection with this movement was rather symbolic, since in Frida’s paintings one can detect the influence of pre-Columbian civilization, national Mexican motifs and symbols, as well as the theme of death. In 1938, fate brought her into contact with the founder of surrealism, Andre Breton, about a meeting with whom Frida herself spoke as follows: “I never thought that I was a surrealist until Andre Breton came to Mexico and told me about it.” Before meeting Breton, Frida's self-portraits were rarely perceived as something special, but French poet I saw surreal motifs on the canvases, which made it possible to depict the artist’s emotions and her unspoken pain. Thanks to this meeting, successful exhibition paintings by Kahlo in New York.

In 1939, after her divorce from Diego Rivera, Frida painted one of the most telling paintings - “The Two Fridas”. The painting depicts two natures of one person. One Frida is dressed in a white dress, on which drops of blood are visible flowing from her wounded heart; The dress of the second Frida has a brighter color, and the heart is unharmed. Both Fridas are connected by blood vessels that feed both exposed hearts - a technique often used by the artist to convey heartache. Frida in bright national clothes is exactly that “ Mexican Frida”, whom Diego loved, and the image of the artist in a Victorian wedding dress is a Westernized version of the woman Diego abandoned. Frida holds her hand, emphasizing her loneliness.

Kahlo's paintings are etched into the memory not only by their images, but also by their bright, energetic palette. In her diary, Frida herself tried to explain the colors used in the creation of her paintings. Thus, green was associated with a kind, warm light, magenta purple was associated with the Aztec past, yellow symbolized insanity, fear and illness, and blue symbolized purity of love and energy.

Frida's legacy

In 1951, after more than 30 operations, the mentally and physically broken artist was able to endure the pain only thanks to painkillers. Even at that time, it was difficult for her to draw as before, and Frida used medications along with alcohol. Previously detailed images became more blurry, drawn hastily and inattentively. As a result of alcohol abuse and frequent psychological breakdowns, the artist's death in 1954 gave rise to many rumors of suicide.

But with her death, Frida’s fame only increased, and her beloved Blue House became a museum-gallery of paintings by Mexican artists. The feminist movement of the 1970s also revived interest in the artist, as Frida was seen by many as an iconic figure of feminism. Hayden Herrera's A Biography of Frida Kahlo and the 2002 film Frida keep this interest alive.

Self-portraits of Frida Kahlo

More than half of Frida's works are self-portraits. She started drawing at the age of 18, after she was in a terrible accident. Her body was badly broken: her spine was damaged, her pelvic bones, collarbone, ribs were broken, there were eleven fractures on one leg alone. Frida's life was in the balance, but the young girl was able to win, and, oddly enough, drawing helped her with this. Even in the hospital room, a large mirror was placed in front of her and Frida drew herself.

In almost all self-portraits, Frida Kahlo portrayed herself as serious, gloomy, as if frozen and cold with a stern, impenetrable face, but all the emotions and emotional experiences of the artist can be felt in the details and figures surrounding her. Each of the paintings contains the feelings that Frida experienced at a certain point in time. With the help of a self-portrait, she seemed to be trying to understand herself, reveal her inner world, and free herself from the passions raging inside her.

The artist was amazing person with enormous willpower, who loves life, knows how to rejoice and love limitlessly. Her positive attitude towards the world around her and her surprisingly subtle sense of humor attracted a variety of people to her. Many sought to get into her “Blue House” with indigo-colored walls, to recharge with the optimism that the girl fully possessed.

Frida Kahlo put into every self-portrait she painted the strength of her character, all the mental anguish she experienced, the pain of loss and genuine willpower; she does not smile in any of them. The artist always portrays herself as strict and serious. Frida suffered the betrayal of her beloved husband Diego Rivera very hard and painfully. Self-portraits written during that period of time are literally permeated with suffering and pain. However, despite all the trials of fate, the artist was able to leave behind more than two hundred paintings, each of which is unique.

« Surrealism is a magical surprise when
I'm sure you'll find it in your wardrobe
shirts, and you find a lion there.»

Once ranked by Andre Breton among the extraordinary surrealists of her time, Frida Kahlo won the recognition and love of other artists. She skillfully embodied her fascinating biography, accompanied by death, on the white canvas of another, fictional life. To be an artist of the events of one’s own lived days means to be a brave observer who does not know how to cry, a writer who portrays himself as a hero ridiculed by nature and, finally, simply a foreign object in his eyes, full of life. Frida Kahlo, without a shadow of a doubt, was one. With a look full of genuine struggle and devoid of fear, the artist often looked at her reflection in a cloudy mirror, and then, with a stroke of her brush, recreated the loneliness and suffering hidden in the depths of her soul. The white canvas of the canvas is not just a painting tool, it is like a cage in which Frida imprisoned her unbearable pain of loss, the eternal loss of health, love and strength, getting rid of it once and for all, like from an annoying child. Although no, not forever, but only for the time being... For now new trouble didn't knock on the locked doors of her house.

Glancing over the brief biography of this woman, the face of death breaks through the pores of joy and laughter. Unfortunately, behind the stately figure of Frida Kahlo there was always a faded shadow of misfortune. Sometimes death made noise with its fiery crackers to intimidate, sometimes it grinned, feeling its victory, and sometimes it even covered its eyes with its bony palms, promising a quick end. It is not surprising that the artist’s themes of pain, excruciating agony and even the cult of death were reflected in her early and later works.

And since the echo of this theme is ubiquitous in Kahlo’s paintings, let us, at our own peril and risk, for fear of becoming infected with toxic fumes, touch the agonizing art, always provoked by the sad events that once stripped the life of the Mexican artist into “before” and “ after".

Starting from afar

Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo Calderon was born on July 6, 1907 in the small town of Coyocan, then a former suburb of Mexico City, and was the third of four daughters of Matilda and Guilmero Kahlo. The artist's mother was of Mexican descent with Indian echoes in her ancestry. The father was a Jew with German roots. He worked most of his life as a photographer, taking photographs for various publications and magazines. Passionately loving his daughters and not depriving any of his attention, in the end Guilmero most strongly influenced the formation of the tastes and attitude of Frida, whose fate was much more terrible than that of the other sisters.

« I remember that I was four years old when the “tragic ten days” happened. I saw with my own eyes the battle of the Zapata peasants against the Carrancistas.»

It was with these words that the future artist described her first memory of Decena Tragica (“tragic ten days”) in her personal diary. The girl was only four years old when a revolution raged around her childhood, easily claiming tens of thousands of lives. Frida's consciousness firmly absorbed the bloody spirit of the revolutionary spirit, with which she subsequently lived her life, and the smell of death permeated everything through and through, taking away from the girl a certain childish, childish carelessness.

When Frida turns six years old, the first misfortune directly affects her fate. She suffers from polio, which mercilessly withers her right leg, barbarically bedridden. Deprived of the opportunity to play and frolic with the other children in the yard, Frida receives her first mental trauma and many complexes. After a severe course of the disease, which put future life The girls were in doubt, the right leg remained thinner than the left, a limp appeared, which did not disappear until the end of days. Only later did Kahlo learn to hide her little flaw under the long hems of her skirts.

In 1922, one of thirty-five girls out of two thousand students, Frida Kahlo attended the National Preparatory School, intending to study medicine at the university in the future. During this period, she admires Diego Rivera, who will one day become her husband and serve as a catalyst for many mental crises along with physical suffering.

Accident

The unpleasant events that happened in the past, as it turned out, were only an easy preparation for the more difficult trials that befell the fragile girl.

On September 17, 1925, returning from school, Frida Kahlo and her friend Alejandro Gomez Arias boarded a bus that went to Coyocan. The vehicle has become a defining symbol. Some time after departure, a terrible disaster occurred: the bus collided with a tram, several people died on the spot. Frida received many injuries throughout her body, so severe that doctors doubted whether the girl would survive and whether she would be able to lead a normal, healthy life in the future. The worst prognosis was death. The most optimistic prediction was that she would recover, but would not be able to walk. This time, death was no longer playing hide and seek, but stood over the head of the hospital bed, holding a black shroud in his hands to cover the head of the deceased. But hardened by childhood illnesses, Frida Kahlo survived. Against all odds. And she got back to her feet.

It was this fateful event that in the future served as fertile ground for the first discussions on the topic of death and interpretations of its image in Frida’s paintings.

Just a year later, Frida makes a pencil sketch, calling it “Crash” (1926), in which she briefly sketches the disaster. Forgetting about perspective, Kahlo paints a scene of a bus collision in a dispersed manner in the uppermost corner. The lines blur, losing balance, thereby reminiscent of pools of blood, because the drawing is black and white. The dead are depicted only in silhouette; they no longer have a face. In the foreground, on a Red Cross stretcher, lies the bandaged body of a girl. Her own face hovers above him, looking around at what is happening with an expression of concern.

In this sketch, which is not yet similar to any of the works known to us, death does not acquire completeness, an image generated by Frida’s consciousness. It only makes itself felt through a hovering saddened spirit-face, as if defining the line between life and death.

This drawing is the only pictorial evidence of the accident. Once she experienced it, the artist never again addressed this topic in her later works.

For reference

On August 21, 1929, Frida Kahlo and muralist Diego Rivera, already mentioned above, got married. In 1930, Frida suffers a terrible loss that changes her attitude towards life: her first pregnancy is miscarried. Having received injuries to the spine and pelvis during the accident, the girl finds it difficult to bear a child. At this time, Rivera received orders to work in the USA, and already in November married couple moves to San Francisco.

Other details public life two outstanding artists are unlikely to be of interest to us now, so let’s turn to the time when themes of pain and despair again bloom with cruelty on Frida’s canvases.

flying bed

In 1932, Frida and Diego travel to Detroit. Kahlo, with the joy of a future mother, discovers that she is pregnant and hopes, of course, for a better outcome for her situation. The fear of the first unsuccessful pregnancy makes itself felt. Unfortunately, fate decides otherwise. On July 4th of the same year, Frida has a miscarriage. Doctors diagnose that the baby has died in the womb and an abortion must be performed.

Drowning in tears and depression, lying on a hospital bed, Frida paints a picture akin to votive images. The artist shows an amazing ability to combine biographical facts your life and fantasy. Reality is conveyed not as many people see it, but differently, modified by the senses of perception. The outside world is reduced to its most essential elements.

In the picture we see the small, vulnerable figure of Frida lying on a huge bed in the middle of a vast plain. The bed seems to begin to move in empty space, wanting to lift itself off the ground and take the heroine to the other world, where there are no more painful tests of fortitude. Frida is on the verge of death, a large stain of dark brown blood is visible under her crotch, and tears are shed from her eyes. And again, if not for the doctors, Frida could have died. The plain creates a feeling of loneliness and helplessness, only exacerbating the desire to die quickly. The industrial landscape depicted in the distance in the background reinforces the image of abandonment, cold, loss and indifference of people from the outside.

Frida’s hand seems to be reluctantly holding a bunch of red threads, similar to veins or arteries. Each end of the thread is tied with a loose knot to an object that carries a certain meaning. In the lower right corner there are fragile pelvic bones - the cause of unsuccessful pregnancy and abortion. Next is a fading flower of light purple color. As you know, purple is the color of death for some cultures. In this case, it can symbolize the exhaustion of life, its dull colors and rare glimpses of happiness. The only thing that stands out from the bottom row is a metal object that looks like a motor. Most likely, it serves as an anchor holding the bed motionless. At the top center is a picture of a child's embryo. His eyes are closed - he is dead. Legs folded in lotus position. On the right in the picture is a snail, which is intended to personify the slowness of time, its length and cyclicality. On the left is a mannequin of a human torso on a stand, illustrating, like the pelvis, the damaged bones of the spine, which do not allow the mother to lead a full life.

The general mood of the work reveals a desire to get rid of the suffering caused by time and life. Now, it seems, Frida will let go of these thin threads and her bed will slowly fly into other worlds, carried further and further by the wind alone.

Interestingly, in the future more than one Mexican skeleton will hang over Frida’s bed - a reminder of everyone’s mortality. Memento Mori.

Just a few injections

In 1935, Frida created only two works, of which “Just a Few Pricks” especially shocks the viewer with its bloody cruelty.

The painting is a visual parallel to a newspaper report about a woman killed by her husband in a fit of jealousy.

Like most of Frida Kahlo's works, this work must be viewed in light of personal circumstances. The day before, the artist had several toes amputated. The relationship with Rivera during this period was difficult and confusing, so Frida could undoubtedly find relief only through the symbolism of her own painting.

Rivera, who since their wedding had been constantly in sexual relations with an endless number of girls, this time became interested in Frida's sister, Christina.

Deeply wounded by this state of affairs, Frida Kahlo left the family home.

The painting “Just a Few Pricks” can be understood as the artist’s state of mind. The body, again lying reclined on the bed, had long been put to death with a cold weapon - a knife. The entire floor of the room is stained with blood, the woman’s hand is thrown back helplessly. It should be assumed that Frida in the image main character embodied the death of her own broken spirit, no longer willing to fight the infidelities of her dissolute husband. The frame in which the canvas is wrapped is also painted with “drops” of blood.

This is one of the few paintings in which death is depicted in its direct meaning, without hiding under a layer of images and symbols.

Suicide of Dorothy Hale

In 1933, the couple moved to New York, where Rivera painted his monumental mural in Rockefeller Center. In 1938, Claire Booth Lucey, publisher of the fashion magazine Vanity Fair, commissioned a painting from Frida Kahlo. Her friend, Dorothy Hale, whom Frieda also knew, committed suicide
with me in October of the same year.

This is how Claire herself recalls the series of events:

« Shortly after that, I went to a gallery to see an exhibition of Frida Kahlo's paintings. The exhibition itself was full of people. Kahlo made her way through the crowd to me and immediately began talking about Dorothy's suicide. Wasting no time, Kahlo offered to make a portrait of Dorothy. I didn’t speak Spanish well enough to understand what the word recuerdo meant. I thought that Kahlo would paint a portrait of Dorothy, similar to her self-portrait (dedicated to Trotsky) that I bought in Mexico. And suddenly I thought that a portrait of Dorothy, created by a famous artist friend, might be something her poor mother might want to have. I said so, and Kahlo thought the same. I asked about the price, Kahlo named the price, and I said: “Send me the portrait when you finish it. Then I will send it to Mother Dorothy.”»

This is how the film “The Suicide of Dorothy Hale” appeared. This is a recreation real event in the forms of an ancient votive image. Dorothy Hale jumped out of her apartment window. Like time-lapse photography, Frida Kahlo captures different positions the bodies are falling, and the corpse itself, already lifeless, is located below in the foreground. The story of the event is told in blood-red letters in the inscription below:

« In New York City, on the 21st day of October 1938, at six o'clock in the morning, Mrs. Dorothy Hale committed suicide by jumping out of a window. In memory of her, Frida Kahlo created this retablo».

On the eve of her suicide, the failed actress, forced to live on the generosity of her acquaintances, invited friends to her place, announcing that she was going on a long, interesting journey and was throwing a farewell party on this occasion.

Inspired by this story, Frida masterfully coped with her task, for, apparently, she felt an echo of something familiar in this culminating act. True, the customer did not like the interpretation of his friend’s portrait. Claire Booth Lucy said when she received it in her arms finished work: “I wouldn’t order even a sworn enemy to be portrayed so bloodied, much less my unfortunate friend.”

Sleep, or Bed

In 1940, Frida is treated for her health by Dr. Eloesser in San Francisco. In the same year, the artist remarried Diego Rivera.

Tired of pain in her back, pelvis and leg, Frida Kahlo increasingly turns to the motives of her own disappearance in painting. This is confirmed by a colorful painting called “Dream, or Bed.”

The figure lying on the canopy of the bed represents the image of Judas. Such figures are usually blown up on Mexican streets during Easter Saturday, since it is believed that the traitor will find salvation through suicide.

Considering herself a traitor to her own life, Frida depicts her body as sleeping again. But her face is not disfigured by a suffering grimace. It radiates calm and tranquility - something that is so lacking in Everyday life Mexican artist. Covered with a yellow blanket, her head with her hair flowing is braided with an arabesque of plants. Floating in the skies covered with clouds, this Judas will one day explode and then the end of everything heavy and mortal will come, an act of purity will be committed - the desired suicide.

Thinking about death

In 1943, Frida Kahlo was appointed professor at the La Esmeralda art school. Unfortunately, a few months later, due to health reasons, she was forced to teach classes at home in her native Coyocan.

According to many, it was this event that prompted the artist to write the self-portrait “Thinking about Death.” Not wanting to stay locked up at home, as was the case before, when Frida was very ill, Kahlo was often visited by thoughts of death.

According to ancient Mexican beliefs, death means both new life and birth, which is exactly what Frida, who was already giving up, lacked. In this self-portrait, death is presented against a detailed general background composed of thorn branches. Kahlo borrows this symbol from pre-Hispanic mythology, through which it indicates rebirth following death. For death is the road to another life.

Viva la Vida

In 1950, Frida underwent 7 spinal surgeries. She spent nine whole months in a hospital bed, which had already become an everyday part of life. There was no choice - the artist remained in a wheelchair. Fate continued to present its tricky gifts. A year before her death, in 1953, her right leg was amputated to stop the development of gangrene. At the same time, in Mexico City, in her homeland, the first personal exhibition opened, incorporating all the fruits of pain
and tests. Frida could not come to the opening, relying on her own strength; she was taken to the entrance by an ambulance. As always, she remained cheerful, the artist held a cigarette in one hand, and a glass of her favorite tequila in the other.

A week before her death, Frida Kahlo wrote last picture"Long live life." A bright still life that reflected Frida’s attitude to life and death. And despite the pain, even in her hour of death, Kahlo chose life.

Frida Kahlo died in the house where she was born at the age of 47.

Of course, in the above description, not all paintings and panels that in one way or another relate to the theme of death are presented to the audience. This is only a small part of what has been written. But even thanks to the six paintings described here, one can get a brief idea of ​​the personality and life of the magnificent Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, who carried pain and courage on her shoulders and climbed the Calvary of life with courage.