Known for her famous self-portraits and marriage to Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo is a symbol of Mexican art. Though many largely attribute her self portraits to be her claim to fame, art historians feel that her thirty still life paintings offer insight to Frida Kahlo as a person and not just as an artist. Solomon Grimberg’s article, “Frida Kahlo’s Still Lifes” asserts that though less known than her self portraits, Frida Kahlo’s still life paintings are significant to her life story. The author proves this claim by analyzing several still life portraits and relating them to her outlooks on life as well as her relationship with Rivera.
Kahlo channeled her deepest feelings into her still life’s, projecting repressed emotions about her tumultuous marriage with Rivera. Arguing that Kahlo’s still life’s reflect her longing for Rivera as well as her feelings of inferiority, Grimberg focuses primarily on analyzing the paintings,“Still Life with Piggy Bank and Black Horse” and “How I love when I have You”. For instance, “Still Life with Piggy Bank and Black Horse” according to the article, can be interpreted as an allegory to Kahlo’s courtship with Rivera. Kahlo’s depictions of the animals in the painting reflect the roles in the relationship. The small piggy on its hind legs represents Kahlo while the much larger, striking, and dark horse represents Rivera. In depicting herself as the weaker animal, Kahlo conveyed Rivera’s dominance in the relationship. In addition, Grimberg argues that the still life “How I Love When I Have You” reflects her awareness for separation in life, that is, separation from Rivera. The painting features lightness near the top and darkness across the bottom which contribute to the theme of separation and symbolize Kahlo’s seemingly bright life on the surface and dark internal struggle on the inside. Furthermore, in the painting there is a message that reads “How I love life when I have you” which implies that when she is not with Rive she does not love life, and reinforces the idea of separation from a loved one making life agonizing for her. Moreover, the layout of the painting with a pink ribbon “seductively unfurled” (Frida Kahlo’s Still Life’s Grimberg) around the large melon is symbolic of how Kahlo viewed herself as wrapped around Rivera.
Some of Kahlo’s other still life's offer a window into Kahlo’s perceptions about her life and life in general. According to Grimberg, the painting, “I belong to My Owner”, though a portrait of flowers, can actually be interpreted as a self portrait of Kahlo. The dying flowers and use of gray and white serve as symbols for Kahlo’s preoccupation with morbidity. In addition, the use of the thorny flowers represents the painful aspects of her life, such as her divorce and struggle with Polio growing up. Grimberg focuses on another still life centered around flowers, “The Flower of Life”, in which Kahlo depicts her belief that women are inadequate. In the still life, she paints a large mandrake plant in which she projects the conflict of the painting. The red leaves of the plant form a woman’s genitalia where lightning strikes as a penis ejaculates into it. This unconventional subject matter is symbolic of Kahlo’s belief that women are available for giving men pleasure but incapable of receiving pleasure themselves. Due to the fact that Kahlo grew up in a highly patriarchal period in Mexico when women had very limited rights, this painting is a projection of that societal influences that Kahlo grew up with and experienced. Furthermore, another one of Kahlo’s still life's entitled, “Viva la Vida y el Dr. Juan Farill” encapsulates Kahlo’s struggle between chaos and order and liberty and constraint. In the background of the painting, the composition is split between day and night, reinforcing her torn feelings, and also suggesting her awareness of her nearing death. “According to Christian symbolism, ‘When the sun and moon appear in the sky at Crucifixions, they refer to the sorrow of all the earth’” (qtd in Frida Kahlo’s Still Life's). Moreover, the dove in the painting is symbolic of tranquility and simplicity, perhaps alluding to the peacefulness of the afterlife.
As Kahlo’s health deteriorated she produced more and more still life's, possibly reflecting her awareness of her nearing end. The year before she embarked on a deadly spinal fusion she finished the still life, “Magnolias”; When her leg was amputated she wrote, “Feet, what do I need them more if I have wings to fly” and drew a still life of an artist with its legs in a cracked clay cast; and, finally, in the last three years of her life she explored a new form Mexican art. Kahlo produced still life's until her end, using them as an outlet for her inner feelings. Although Kahlo is best known for her self-portraits, art historians have found a great deal of significance in analyzing her still life's as they reveal her inner thoughts about the world and her marriage to Rivera. Though, perhaps more difficult to analyze, her still life's may contain a more sincere meaning than her self-portraits.
Kahlo channeled her deepest feelings into her still life’s, projecting repressed emotions about her tumultuous marriage with Rivera. Arguing that Kahlo’s still life’s reflect her longing for Rivera as well as her feelings of inferiority, Grimberg focuses primarily on analyzing the paintings,“Still Life with Piggy Bank and Black Horse” and “How I love when I have You”. For instance, “Still Life with Piggy Bank and Black Horse” according to the article, can be interpreted as an allegory to Kahlo’s courtship with Rivera. Kahlo’s depictions of the animals in the painting reflect the roles in the relationship. The small piggy on its hind legs represents Kahlo while the much larger, striking, and dark horse represents Rivera. In depicting herself as the weaker animal, Kahlo conveyed Rivera’s dominance in the relationship. In addition, Grimberg argues that the still life “How I Love When I Have You” reflects her awareness for separation in life, that is, separation from Rivera. The painting features lightness near the top and darkness across the bottom which contribute to the theme of separation and symbolize Kahlo’s seemingly bright life on the surface and dark internal struggle on the inside. Furthermore, in the painting there is a message that reads “How I love life when I have you” which implies that when she is not with Rive she does not love life, and reinforces the idea of separation from a loved one making life agonizing for her. Moreover, the layout of the painting with a pink ribbon “seductively unfurled” (Frida Kahlo’s Still Life’s Grimberg) around the large melon is symbolic of how Kahlo viewed herself as wrapped around Rivera.
Some of Kahlo’s other still life's offer a window into Kahlo’s perceptions about her life and life in general. According to Grimberg, the painting, “I belong to My Owner”, though a portrait of flowers, can actually be interpreted as a self portrait of Kahlo. The dying flowers and use of gray and white serve as symbols for Kahlo’s preoccupation with morbidity. In addition, the use of the thorny flowers represents the painful aspects of her life, such as her divorce and struggle with Polio growing up. Grimberg focuses on another still life centered around flowers, “The Flower of Life”, in which Kahlo depicts her belief that women are inadequate. In the still life, she paints a large mandrake plant in which she projects the conflict of the painting. The red leaves of the plant form a woman’s genitalia where lightning strikes as a penis ejaculates into it. This unconventional subject matter is symbolic of Kahlo’s belief that women are available for giving men pleasure but incapable of receiving pleasure themselves. Due to the fact that Kahlo grew up in a highly patriarchal period in Mexico when women had very limited rights, this painting is a projection of that societal influences that Kahlo grew up with and experienced. Furthermore, another one of Kahlo’s still life's entitled, “Viva la Vida y el Dr. Juan Farill” encapsulates Kahlo’s struggle between chaos and order and liberty and constraint. In the background of the painting, the composition is split between day and night, reinforcing her torn feelings, and also suggesting her awareness of her nearing death. “According to Christian symbolism, ‘When the sun and moon appear in the sky at Crucifixions, they refer to the sorrow of all the earth’” (qtd in Frida Kahlo’s Still Life's). Moreover, the dove in the painting is symbolic of tranquility and simplicity, perhaps alluding to the peacefulness of the afterlife.
As Kahlo’s health deteriorated she produced more and more still life's, possibly reflecting her awareness of her nearing end. The year before she embarked on a deadly spinal fusion she finished the still life, “Magnolias”; When her leg was amputated she wrote, “Feet, what do I need them more if I have wings to fly” and drew a still life of an artist with its legs in a cracked clay cast; and, finally, in the last three years of her life she explored a new form Mexican art. Kahlo produced still life's until her end, using them as an outlet for her inner feelings. Although Kahlo is best known for her self-portraits, art historians have found a great deal of significance in analyzing her still life's as they reveal her inner thoughts about the world and her marriage to Rivera. Though, perhaps more difficult to analyze, her still life's may contain a more sincere meaning than her self-portraits.
Works Cited:
Frida Kahlo's Still Lifes: "I Paint Flowers So They Will Not Die"
Woman's Art Journal , Vol. 25, No. 2 (Autumn, 2004 - Winter, 2005), pp. 25-30
Published by: Woman's Art, Inc.
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3566514
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