Feeding on Her Pain

Frida Kahlo, "Self portrait," 1926

One of my favorite artists is Frida Kahlo, whose art resonates more than sixty years after her death. Once an obscure foreign artist, Frida Kahlo has become astonishingly famous. Partly this is because Ms. Kahlo's personal history is fascinating and horror-filled: poliomyelitis at six (with a withered leg); sexual abuse in childhood; a mutilating accident at nineteen that left her unable to bear children and ended her ambition to be a doctor; and a sad yet loving marriage to Diego Rivera, a famous Mexican artist. More importantly though, it is how her life informed her work that has caught the imagination of many people. It reminds me a bit of how Vincent van Gogh became famous a century or so ago--his work and life have become almost interchangeable.

Although Ms. Kahlo had already received some instruction in drawing and engraving from a friend of her father's, she only started painting during her months-long recovery from horrific injuries she received in a bus-streetcar accident. She was so severely injured (her pelvis fractured and impaled by a metal rail, vertebral injuries) that she was in pain for her remaining years. Yet during those years she produced striking and original art. By 1928 she was beginning to think she might be able to make a living as a medical illustrator, combining her interest in art with her studies in science. She had been introduced to Diego Rivera, who at the time was arguably the most famous Mexican artist, so she asked him to evaluate her work. He wrote later that he was impressed with her severity and her honesty as well as her ability to precisely delineate character in the portraits she showed him.

For me it is her vision and her unflinching eyes, her ability to see and show the world without illusions that make her great. Before you can paint a thing you must see it clearly. Her first self portrait is ample evidence of her talent (1926, above) in seeing. It shows a young, almost defiant woman whose plunging neckline and swan-like neck emphasize her smoldering sexuality. Her eyes fix us with a suggestive, knowing look. You can see the fierceness and sexuality of her personality. Often alone, isolated by her injuries and pain, she had ample time to look inward and reflect on the world and its inhabitants. In a real sense, her art fed on the physical and emotional pain, grew into visual statements of psychological torment.

Frida Kahlo, "The Broken Column," 1944

During her lifetime, although she was recognized by many as a genuine talent (and indeed she had one-person shows in New York and Paris and was hailed by Andre Breton, among others) she was overshadowed by Mr. Rivera, whose fame was worldwide. Although she travelled with him to the sites of several commissions in the U.S., she was relegated to the sidelines. Nonetheless, Ms. Kahlo painted in her own way and with her own vision. Her self portraits, family portraits and myriad other works only became well-known in the last decades of the 20th century. Before that she was simply another obscure foreign painter, known by some but unknown by many.

These days, though, the whole world has fallen for Frida Kahlo--there is even a term for it: Fridolatry. There are all kinds of Kahlo tchotchkes, from museum tote bags to coffee cups to reproductions to even clothing. Perhaps it is because she was a realist painter whose art is readily understood, accessible to most, and because it is based in her suffering. She underwent countless surgeries, encasement in plaster, more surgeries, serious side-effects, gangrenous toes and eventual leg amputation. But through it she continued her voluminous journals, drawings, paintings, and political activism. She was tough, and people like that too. While many of her paintings are imbued with her pain, some address it directly. A good example, The Broken Column, she painted after a spinal surgery in 1944, nearly 20 years after her injuries, to correct resulting spinal deformities. The viewer can see through her torso to view the broken Ionic column of her spine, pieced together. Unlike many of her other self portraits, she is alone in a vast, blasted landscape, weeping. Yet her innate sexuality and strength are still there despite the piercing nails and dreadful injuries.

Given the current popularity of Ms. Kahlo, it's no surprise that the Victoria and Albert Museum in England has now mounted a show dedicated to her and her work. The new exhibition is called Frida Kahlo: Making Herself Up and is interesting because although some of her paintings are included, much of the show involves her possessions--cosmetics, colorful clothing, collection of plaster corsets, and other artifacts. Although it sounds ghoulish, there's even a prosthetic leg, decked out in one of her bright red boots. At least one reviewer found the exhibition eye-opening, providing a different viewpoint of Frida Kahlo. Another reviewer commented that the art, not the possessions is what matters.

You can see until September if you're in London, and decide for yourself.