The Art of Art: Frida Kahlo

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The Art of ArtFrida Kahlos The Broken Column

• Elements of Art
• Line
• Shape and Form
• Space
• Texture
• Value and Light
• Color
• Time

• Organizing Principles
• Repetition
• Variety
• Rhythm
• Balance
• Compositional Unity
• Emphasis
• Proportion
• Relationship to the Environment

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Frida Kahlos The Broken Column, 1944

• In order to make these art pieces fit into our
  format, we need to select art from which we can
  readily draw a theme.
• In The Broken Column, we might conclude that For
  women within patriarchy, life is painful and
  fraught with vulnerability is a potential
  workable theme.

Image from http//www.urtonart.com/history/frida-
y-diego.htm
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Frida Kahlos The Broken Column, 1944

• Repetition
• Lines of straps
• Several are needed
• Cultural pressure is constant
• Cracks within the Ionic Column
• The more cracks, the more fragile
• Associated with ancient Greece, an extreme
  patriarchy pressure on women to look and act is
  constant
• Bare breasts
• Vulnerability, objectification
• Highlight femaleness (otherness)
• Nails

Image from http//www.urtonart.com/history/frida-
y-diego.htm
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Frida Kahlos The Broken Column, 1944

• Variety
• Head
• Turned to left (feminine side) but ear shows on
  right (masculine side)
• Skirt
• Flows from left to right
• Background
• Terrain shapes are different from one side of
  figure to the other
• Notice green on left side to suggest fertility
  much less present on right
• Nails
• Each turned in different direction

Image from http//www.urtonart.com/history/frida-
y-diego.htm
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Frida Kahlos The Broken Column, 1944

• Rhythm
• Predictable pattern
• Corset-like straps
• Breasts
• Ionic column details
• Nails, flow upward from left
• Balance
• Distribution of visual weight
• Largely symmetrical
• Arms, body, straps
• Few asymmetrical elements
• Ear, skirt

Image from http//www.urtonart.com/history/frida-
y-diego.htm
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Frida Kahlos The Broken Column, 1944

• Compositional Unity
• Simple triangle
• Pulls eyes upward
• Contains the most dramatic element
• One eye
• Two breasts
• Torso with column and straps
• No Arms
• Places the mouth off center toward the left

Image from http//www.urtonart.com/history/frida-
y-diego.htm
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Frida Kahlos The Broken Column, 1944

• Emphasis
• Rectangle within triangle
• Focal point (dominant contrast) is chest elements
• Viewer is directed, or constrained, as is the
  female figure
• Economy
• No extraneous details
• Barren landscape, no jewelry, skirt covering most
  private parts

Image from http//www.urtonart.com/history/frida-
y-diego.htm
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Frida Kahlos The Broken Column, 1944

• Proportion
• Body seems to be proportioned correctly
• Regular woman
• Relationship to the Environment
• How the art is, itself, displayed can add to or
  detract from the pieces meaning
• How does seeing the piece in a PowerPoint
  presentation with a marble background affect
  your sense of the pieces theme?

Image from http//www.urtonart.com/history/frida-
y-diego.htm