Kahlo, Frida (1951). Still Life with Parrot [oil on masonite]. Art Collection, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin. © 2008 Banco de México Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust.

Kahlo has created a warm, voluptuous painting bursting with life and energy. The work is strongly harmonized with curved forms that are equivalent by both dimensions and piques interest through variations in their size and orientation. I believe this composition is charged with feminine vitality. |

A still life of mostly spherical forms is the subject with special attention paid to value graduations, mass and creating an impression of vitality. Each object is rendered with an identifiable bursting, almost youthful style, as though each fruit is as animated as the parrot settled in the upper-left corner.

The teeming energy of this work is expressed through lush color and spherical shapes. Kahlo’s sensitive integration of value keeps the overwhelming pure palette from taking on the character of a young child’s first attempts at painting. A subtle strength of this work is the unevenly-paced pattern she creates with the tiny organic shapes of seeds, pods and near-perfect circles. A second pattern is at work as well, based on value.

A soft directional and consistent light source creates a rich value structure. This and subject overlap build a solid illusion of depth. A stable, solid sense of pictorial balance is created in this work similar to Courbet’s arrangement of figures in his work A Burial at Ornans. This work is based on natural, curved forms. Colors are overwhelmingly pure and warm. Balance is based on a full use of the value scale. Contrast is found in how all forms are natural, but nearly mechanically geometric. 

The orientation of individual objects, with the exception of the parrot, actually direct the eye toward the canvas’ boundaries. This is contrasted with edge definition, which is sharper toward the center of this work and blurs upon approaching the edges. Subtle tension is well-placed in how the individual subject pieces brush up against or rest on each other. The picture frame is, in the end respected, but additional tension is found in how a few objects nearly touch it. In addition to this, the picture frame is the single rectilinear form found in this work.

To conclude, it is quite a challenge to summarize a work with so many formal and intellectual strengths. First, Kahlo’s intuitive and amazing use of objective color, integrated with value, requires acknowledgement. Next, the impression of energy and life is more than effective in this beautiful still life.