Frida Kahlo

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Frida Kahlo 1907-1954 LGBT ARTIST
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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 Harings
work Some students could Learn to create an
exciting interlocking sculpture demonstrating a
good interpretation of Harings 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 Harings
work Some students could Learn to create an
exciting interlocking sculpture demonstrating a
good interpretation of Harings work.
Learning Objectives
You will 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. You can create an
emotionally charged self portrait (or series of)
making informed responses to Kahlos work. You
may create a series of self portraits skilfully
manipulating materials, making informed,
imaginative and personal responses to Kahlos
work.
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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.
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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.
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Frida Kahlo painting her body cast in bed - with
the aid of a mirror - during one of her periods
of illness.
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From an early age, Frida Kahlo dressed as a man
at times. She also had lesbian relationships with
various women, including the well-known artist
Georgia OKeeffe. Frida Kahlo was bisexual.
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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 Mexicos
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.
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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 80s
he used his imagery to promote aids awareness and
donated art to raise money for AIDS research.
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 Kahlos 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.
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• 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
  Kahlos 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 Kahlos work.

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Kahlos 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.
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Self-Portrait with Monkey 1940
Diego and I 1949
Self-Portrait with Monkey 1938
In her portraits Kahlos 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.
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Here after their divorce Kahlos 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 mans suit.
Nevertheless, she still wears her delicate
earrings, and the large suit dwarfs her
physique. Kahlos cross-dressing was not
necessarily a denial of her gender, but a way to
analyse and communicate her own complex gender
predicament.
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• 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 Christs Passion.

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The self-portrait Thinking of Death, 1943, deals
explicitly with Kahlos preoccupation with
mortality and the fragility of her body. In this
work, the third eye, chakra, in the centre of the
forehead, denotes wisdom or spiritual truth
according to Indian Yogic beliefs. It has been
supplanted with a deaths head. The imagery
and symbolism used reflects Kahlos 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.
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• 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 Kahlos life was that she was a
  bisexual, does this reflect in her work? One of
  the contexts of Kahlos 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 Kahlos life was that she was a
bisexual women. Does this reflect in her work?
One of the contexts of Kahlos life was that
she had a disability and was in pain a great deal
of her life. Does this reflect in her work?