Frida Kahlo1907-1954

LGBT ARTIST

Learning Objectives.

All students must; gain knowledge and insight into the life and portrait painting of Frida Kahlo, developing learning by creating a composite self portrait from 3 view points.Most students should; create an emotionally charged self portrait (or series of) making informed responses to Kahlo’s work.Some students could; create a series of self portraits skilfully manipulating materials, making informed, imaginative and personal responses to Kahlo’s work.

All students must; Gain knowledge and insight into the life and work of the artist Keith Haring. All students must begin to learn how to use paper to create a three dimensional form Most students should; Learn to add correct proportions and learn how a paper sculpture is constructed making a response to Haring’s workSome students could; Learn to create an exciting interlocking sculpture demonstrating a good interpretation of Haring’s work.

All students must; Gain knowledge and insight into the life and work of the artist Keith Haring. All students must begin to learn how to use paper to create a three dimensional form Most students should; Learn to add correct proportions and learn how a paper sculpture is constructed making a response to Haring’s workSome students could; Learn to create an exciting interlocking sculpture demonstrating a good interpretation of Haring’s work.

Who was Frida Kahlo?

Frida Kahlo is regarded as one of the most significant artists of the twentieth century.

Kahlo put her own body at the centre of her art.

Through the representation of her body she explored aspects of her autobiography, the construction of identity, female experience, gender boundaries and subverted stereotypical representations of women and their bodies in art.

Frida Kahlo began painting during her convalescence from a terrible accident, when a tram collided with the bus on which she was travelling. The impact broke her spine, and fractured her leg, collarbone, ribs and pelvis. Her life became a battle against the slow deterioration of her body. ‘She lived dying’ said one friend.

Frida kahlo painting her body cast in bed with the aid of a mirror during one of her periods of illness

From an early age, Frida Kahlo dressed as a man at times, and had lesbian relationships with various women, including the well known artist Georgia O’Keeffe.

Frida Kahlo was Bisexual.

In 1928, when she was 21, Kahlo embarked on a relationship with Diego Rivera. They married in 1929, divorced in 1939, and remarried in 1940. Rivera, twenty years her senior, was Mexico’s most celebrated artist, famed for politically motivated murals that adorned the walls of numerous public buildings.

Encouraged by Rivera, who used aspects of Mexican folk art in his mural schemes, Kahlo began to paint in a more vernacular style and began a series of self-portraits.

Rivera described Kahlo as: ‘The only artist in the history of art who tore open her chest and heart to reveal the biological truth of her feelings’.

Self-portraiture was Kahlo’s most consistent and successful mode of expression, and the genre that allowed her to penetrate and dissect the very core of her being.

In her art she expressed her sexual ambiguities, androgynous traits and bisexual tendencies.

Keith Haring was one of the most influential visual artists of the late 20th century. He wanted to bring art to everyone and started drawing on the subway. He was part of a Hip Hop scene in New York. His bold cartoon like images are icons of American art and popular culture. After he was diagnosed with aids in the late 80’s he used his imagery to promote aids awareness and donated art to raise money for AIDS research.

In Two Nudes in a Forest, 1939, Kahlo paints two women lying together. One is light skinned, one dark skinned. They might represent two aspects of a single nature, or the mixed racial origins of the Mexican people. The painting also touches on Kahlo’s bisexuality – the pair are watched by a spider monkey, a symbol of lust – and could equally be interpreted as Kahlo herself and a woman she loved. This painting raises the theme of bisexuality more explicitly than anywhere else in Kahlo’s work.

Kahlo’s expressions of her sexual ambiguity and her tendency to cross-dress attempted to explode the stereotypical roles assigned to women within a forcefully macho society in Mexico at the time.

She exaggerated such features as her eyebrows and moustache, her broad shoulders and strong arms in her paintings.

In her portraits Kahlo’s features are as impassive as a mask. It is only the addition of symbols, such as teardrops, monkeys, thorns, or arterial red ribbons that indicate her psychological intent.

Diego and I 1949 Self-Portrait with Monkey 1940Self-Portrait with Monkey 1938

Here after their divorce Kahlo’s Self Portrait with Cropped Hair 1940, presents her unwillingness to accept various female roles. Her cut hair and masculine attire define her as an alternative, androgynous Self.

By cropping her hair and by displaying the evidence of her actions, Kahlo created a complex symbolic image.

Here she is dressed in a man’s suit, nevertheless, she still wears her delicate earrings, and the large suit dwarfs her physique.

Kahlo’s cross-dressing was not necessarily a denial of her gender, but a way to analyse and communicate her own complex gender predicament.

Here in Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird 1940, Kahlo exaggerates her facial hair, moustache, side-burns and joined eyebrows, deliberately playing up the androgynous and earthy aspects of her natural yet unconventional beauty.

The literal depiction of blood represents physical harm and pain. Yet blood implies metaphysical suffering, her necklace pierces her skin. This work refers to religious rituals and images of Christ’s Passion.

The self-portrait Thinking of Death, 1943, deals explicitly with Kahlo’s preoccupation with mortality and the fragility of her body. In this work, the third eye chakra in the centre of the forehead, which denotes wisdom or spiritual truth according to Indian Yogic beliefs, has been supplanted with a death’s head. The imagery and symbolism used reflects Kahlo’s enduring obsession with the universal cycle of life, and her search for harmony between dualistic principles such as life and death, male and female, light and dark, ancient and modern.

•In pairs students discuss their experience of creating their portrait and review the outcomes referring to the learning objectives.•Show examples that match the objectives.•Consider the following questions; one of the contexts of Kahlo`s life was that she was a bisexual, does this reflect in her work? One of the contexts of Kahlo`s life was that she had a disability and was in pain a great deal of her life, does this reflect in her work?

Consider the following questions;

One of the contexts of Kahlo`s life was that she was a bisexual women. Does this reflect in her work?

One of the contexts of Kahlo`s life was that she had a disability and was in pain a great deal of her life. Does this reflect in her work?