Passage IV

Frida Kahlo's Self-Portraits

Among Mexican artist Frida Kahlo's gifts to the art world is some of the most vivid and varied self-portraits ever created.(47) Rarely has any painter concentrated on the self-portrait to the extent that she did.

[1] Kahlo's interest in painting, and the self-portrait in particular, stemmed to a defining moment in her life. [2] A near-fatal bus accident when she was eighteen years old caused a spinal column fracture that left her confined to bed for two years. [3] Her close to dying, as well as the lifelong suffering brought on by the accident, which fed her desire to be remembered. [4] In Pensando en la muerte (Thinking of death), Kahlo suggests how much death consumed her thoughts. [5] In this painting, she portrays herself with the dreamlike image of a skull and crossbones in the middle of her forehead. [6] During those years, Kahlo learned to use a lap easel and an overhead mirror to capture her image in paintings.(52)

The artist sought to define herself through the self-portrait as a unique individual—her paintings have been described as disturbingly honest. In her art, Kahlo embraced all these elements and aspects of her identity. In Las Dos Fridas (The two Fridas), she depicts two images of herself seated side by side on a bench. One wears a Victorian gown, the other a Tehuana Indian blouse and skirt. Both Fridas display exposed hearts that are joined by a cord connecting their circulatory systems.

In another painting, Autorretrato con collar de espinas y colibri (Self-portrait with thorn necklace and hummingbird), Kahlo again draws attention to the complexity of her personality. She presents herself wearing a necklace of thorns, a Christian symbol of martyrdom. From the necklace, hangs, a hummingbird, the Aztec symbol of reincarnation.

Kahlo often enlivened her paintings with subject matter from Mexican archaeology and folk art. Her paintings raise as many questions about her as they answer. Perhaps Kahlo is what she sometimes called herself—the "great unrevealed one."