Kahlo is communicating in a literal self-portrait
internal conflict and the effects of lifelong medical complications due to serious
personal injury. This, combined with the composition’s stiff tone, edge it
toward minor abstraction on an otherwise realistic and individualized pair of
subjects who are the same subject. Stability and balance, which build both
order and tension, characterize this work’s formal energy, while conceptually
more force is used.
The “two Fridas” are of European, on the left, and Mexican, on the right, decent. This is referenced by the difference in dress; the bodies of the two figures are near reflections of each other. When Kahlo was a teenager, she suffered a serious injury due to a bus accident that resulted in a lifetime of medical treatments and surgeries. This is loosely referenced by the exposure of her internal organs and veins and her attempt to stop the bleeding by using forceps on the left. The dress on the figure-left appears brace-like on her neck. Through all of this, Kahlo is offering comfort to herself, referencing a sense of isolation.
Definition and modeling clarify the foreground subjects against a backdrop of amorphous, cloud-like forms. This sets up an analogous relationship in shape between figurative and scenic forms. The entire canvas bears the same level of development, which pushes the conceptual meaning of the composition forward. The pose and gaze of both Fridas are direct. Time has no meaning. The composition could benefit from slightly better value-based definition with the figure on the left.
A great accomplishment of Kahlo, who lived from 1907 to 54, was her ability to elegantly communicate complicated personal truths in a literal manner. While her contemporaries credit her style as being autobiographical, I find it self-absorbed. In the example of the Two Fridas, she expresses confusion about her self-identity, because she finds her European and indigenous Mexican heritages to be incongruous.
The “two Fridas” are of European, on the left, and Mexican, on the right, decent. This is referenced by the difference in dress; the bodies of the two figures are near reflections of each other. When Kahlo was a teenager, she suffered a serious injury due to a bus accident that resulted in a lifetime of medical treatments and surgeries. This is loosely referenced by the exposure of her internal organs and veins and her attempt to stop the bleeding by using forceps on the left. The dress on the figure-left appears brace-like on her neck. Through all of this, Kahlo is offering comfort to herself, referencing a sense of isolation.
Definition and modeling clarify the foreground subjects against a backdrop of amorphous, cloud-like forms. This sets up an analogous relationship in shape between figurative and scenic forms. The entire canvas bears the same level of development, which pushes the conceptual meaning of the composition forward. The pose and gaze of both Fridas are direct. Time has no meaning. The composition could benefit from slightly better value-based definition with the figure on the left.
A great accomplishment of Kahlo, who lived from 1907 to 54, was her ability to elegantly communicate complicated personal truths in a literal manner. While her contemporaries credit her style as being autobiographical, I find it self-absorbed. In the example of the Two Fridas, she expresses confusion about her self-identity, because she finds her European and indigenous Mexican heritages to be incongruous.
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