Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo used to be a mixed-race painter from Mexico who lived for 47 years before she died in 1954. She was born in 1907 and died in 1954 after being infected with polio. Frida wedded renowned Rivera, later divorced, but again re-united and converted to a radical futuristic. She built her reputation via her images and drawings before succumbing to her deteriorating well-being (Monasterio et al., 2022). This essay focuses on humanities and humanism and how Frida has incorporated the human condition into her artistic practices. Frida was a wise woman in an ecosphere where women were anticipated to be attractive, compliant mothers and companions. Even though Frida was an up-to-date woman, her artwork had a naive foundation that depicted humanism.
The Human Condition in Frida Kahlo’s Art
Humanities refer to studies that can facilitate broader intercultural comprehension and establish the groundwork for civically betrothed life. Humanities can prepare individuals to act creatively, think critically, and prosper in a quickly changing world. Frida illustrates the human condition by using self-portraits that express her worldview through dramatic images, depicting herself and the challenges she underwent before meeting her death. Frida was a devoted member of global civilization who cast her art to brand a powerful declaration about her values. Her exertion was divisive and garnered attention; her art has gained global approval since it is complex and contentious, necessitating discussion. Frida was an engaged member of the worldwide community and a strong advocate for her principles throughout her life. Despite the criticism surrounding her art, she attracted a significant audience.
Frida Kahlo gained international recognition due to her art practices. She was daring when it came to self-portraits revealing her inner feelings. Frida Kahlo was pushed to write a series of drawings by her adored husband, Diego Rivera (“IN THE STUDY: Frida Kahlo’s Transformation of Retablo,” 2022). She calmed and comforted several people, particularly females, that they were not alone in their experiences or identities as a bridge-builder with her paintbrush. Kahlo’s art seems to be thoroughly related to her marital challenges and physical well-being. She had a strange and stormy marriage with her husband, Diego Rivera. There was an absence of fidelity on both sides; Diego was known as an adulterer, and Kahlo was supposed to have reacted by retaliating in kind. Frida depicted her image and Diego at the beginning of their married. Rivera was previously a well-known visual artist at the time, twenty decades her elder, and her painting was dismissed as a quiet wife’s hobby. For as long as they had known each other, they would be painting each other.
Frida Kahlo wore a magnificent traditional Mexican headdress and placed Diego’s picture in the “My Mind” portrait on her temple. She dresses in traditional Tahuana garb in several of her self-portraits. As Kahlo’s fame grew, their marriage worsened, and they detached in 1939. She was reprimanded for concentrating more on her profession instead of existing as the submissive wife she was expected to be. They re-wedded later that decade, but primarily for financial reasons, and never shared a marital bed. Her health worries, like her husband, are a persistent theme. She depicted her physical misery and sorrow in striking self-portraits. She explained that the “narrative influence” was “usually located immediately onto her body.” She was stabbed by a metallic rod that birth canal through her pelvis during the accident. She was in agonizing pain and suffering from the consequences of her fate. “The Broken Column” depicts Kahlo’s unadorned abdomen with claws in her flesh and her chest wavering open to show a fractured column.
The shattered column could symbolize her back’s “broken column.” Nurses told Frida that she would at no time be able to bring a fetus beyond 32 weeks of gestation, which proved accurate. She underwent more than 30 procedures to fix the damage, but she was only left in more misery. When Frida composed “Tree of Hope,” a prone, presumed Frida is sliced up and flowing on a stretcher as yet an additional Frida in outdated wear wields a vertebral brace, she had begun to lose trust in medicine. Her self-images were her ways of coping with the misery she was suffering. “Oil paint blends with the plasma of Frida’s inner monologue in her work.” Tibol. They are unsettling sights that make the spectator scared. Her anguish is so visibly manifested in her wounds and vulnerability that the observer can sense it.
Kahlo’s effort yielded passionate responses because her art confronted classic philosophies with contemporary views, coupled with sometimes violent and overtly sexual imagery. She used her art to raise consciousness about the maltreatment of women and support the feminist movement. After reading a gentleman’s story about who wounded his cheating wife, Kahlo painted “A Few Small Nips.” Frida was a sexually deviant lady who had relationships with both genders. Thus, she had a stake in how other females were presumed. Kahlo battled against the stereotype of the timid woman with ribbons and lace. She composed “Self-Portrait” with short hair, whereby she is dressed as a man. After her separation from Rivera, men felt highly intimidated by this and interpreted it as an indictment on all males. Men’s reactions implied she was a broken woman, and their frustration highlighted the social division even more.
Kahlo’s art has an excessive contrast between old and modern elements. This is particularly evident in two of her works: “My Dress Hangs There” and “Self-Portrait on the Mexican-American Border.” Both paintings have striking similarities to American culture, other worldwide symbols, and stark contrasts to classical Mexican culture (Deffebach, 2021). The US Capitol is in the foreground, and the Statue of Liberty is in the foreground. The poster of a well-dressed lady and the gas station, all arranged in a metropolitan backdrop with the people visible at the bottom of the painting, depicts capitalist imagery. The artist’s Tehuana clothing hangs in the middle, providing a contrast between the two. There are ancient Mexican religious symbols and flowers emerging out of the dirt on the Mexican side.
The American side of the border has become entirely urbanized. Because they “portray the corruption, estrangement, and dehumanization” of the American people, the paintings are regarded as her most politically outspoken. These paintings would have stirred debate when first produced in the early 1930s. Controversy is the single most effective way to make an issue more well-known. Frida Kahlo’s difficult existence resulted in provocative pictures that posed a social challenge to society (Deffebach, 2021). She had a fiery, defiant personality and was wise above her years. While in university, she was an affiliate of “las personas,” a collection of young females of Mexican origin who trimmed their hair, were educated about the initiative, and wore anogenitally. She ordered her doctors to send him everything and write him messages outlining her nature, so he would comprehend that she is a fighter while seeking a specialist for another critical spine operation.
Frida inspired several young people around Mexico by developing their painting skills. Notwithstanding her doctors’ guidance, Kahlo left the hospital to participate in the political movement in her last days. She was dangerously thin, in a wheelchair, and had multicolored yarn wrapped into her hair after losing a leg to gangrene. Her daily experiences inspired the fascinating paintings Kahlo developed. Rather than becoming a physician, she chose to paint drawings that aroused conversation and debate. Her one-of-a-kind self-portraits have made her famous all around the world.
World Mentalities
In learning about composers and artists, artists use several worlds and mentalities when composing their artwork. For instance, artists compose their art according to what they experience in their lives. Mentalities depict one way of thinking while composing art. Frida’s mentalities relied upon her life experiences and fortunes. In Kahlo’s artworks, she portrays all the challenges she underwent throughout life, including miscarriage and divorce. Frida was in growing degrees of physical agony in her last years. She endured multiple surgeries to repair her spine after a bus crash in 1922, amputating her limb because of gangrene in 1953.
Kahlo’s reliance on opioids grew throughout her agony, and she acquired acute melancholy and anxiety. In July 1954, Kahlo was found dead after ailing for days. Although her death was termed pulmonary intercalation, no autopsy was conducted; some individuals have speculated that she had overdosed on drugs the night before (Deffebach, 2021). Diego died three years later, describing her demise as one of the most challenging days. Frida’s fame escalated worldwide after her death whereby. She is among the most famous and respected artists globally, and her works constantly set records. She is regarded as a victor with an undying spirit by marginal groups such as the LGBQT+ community and the Chicanos.
Modernism and Post-Modernism
Modernism describes a worldwide sociocultural movement that originated in the twentieth century and aimed to bring the reality and ideals of new manufacturing life into better alignment. It started from the way people viewed society and progress. Drawing on late nineteenth-century precedents, artists from all over the world used approach highlights, materials, and methods to produce paintings that they believed better represented the actuality and aspirations of modern civilizations (University Quick Course, 2019). Modernism and modern art are terms that critics and historians use to characterize a series of art styles that began with Gustav Courbet’s realism. However, the term encompasses a wide range of forms, and several fundamental ideas define modernist art: An emphasis on materials, techniques, and processes.
Modernism had established itself as a dominating concept in art by the 1960s, and the prominent American critic Clement Greenberg had developed a mainly restricted philosophy of modernist painting. The result was a reaction that was rapidly labeled postmodernism. Postmodernism and modernism refer to the action of the enlightenment, which occurred during the 19th century and emphasized the movements (University Quick Course, 2019). The two tenets that define modernism and postmodernism include human nature perfectibility and human progress beliefs (University Quick Course, 2019). Postmodern art refers to a group of artistic groups that aimed to counteract some features of modernism and those that formed or grew in its wake. Postmodern movements include intermedia, installation art, conceptual art, and multimedia, notably those using video.
References
Deffebach, N. (2021). 3 revitalizing the past: Precolumbian figures from west Mexico in Kahlo’s paintings. In María Izquierdo and Frida Kahlo, pp. 67-86. University of Texas Press. Web.
In the study: Frida Kahlo’s transformation of Retablo. Society for the Arts in Religious and Theological Studies. (2022). Web.
Monasterio, P. O., Estrada, G., & Fernández, H. (2022). Frida Kahlo: Her Photos. RM Verlag.
University Quick Course. (2019) Modernism vs. Postmodernism. [Video] (YouTube). Web.