MEXICO CITY — Frida Kahlo has no religious affiliations. So, why did the Mexican artist depict various religious motifs in her paintings before her death on July 13, 1954?
“Frida conveyed the power of each individual,” said Ximena Jordán, an art researcher and curator. “Her self-portraits are a reminder of the ways in which we can exercise the power that life — or God, so to speak — has given us.”
Kahlo, born in 1907 in Mexico City, where her “Blue House” is still exposed to the public, drew inspiration from her own experiences to create her art.
The bus accident she survived in 1925, the physical suffering she suffered as a result, and her tumultuous relationship with her husband, Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, all fueled her creativity.
On Anniversary Of Frida Kahlo’s Death, Her Art’s Spirituality Keeps Fans Engaged Around The Globe
Her perspective on life and spirituality forged a bond between her paintings and their viewers, many of whom are still ardent admirers of her work on the 70th anniversary of her passing.
According to Jordán, one of the keys to understanding how she accomplished this is through her self-portraits.
Kahlo appears in several of her paintings, yet she does not depict herself in a naturalistic manner. Instead, Jordán claimed, she “re-created” herself using symbols conveying inner human life’s profundity.
“Diego and I” is an excellent example. Kahlo painted it in 1949, and it sold for $34.9 million at Sotheby’s in New York in 2021, setting an auction record for a work by a Latin American artist.
Kahlo’s demeanor in the picture is calm despite the tears that fall from her eyes. Rivera’s face is on her forehead. In the center of his head is a third eye, representing the unconscious mind in Hinduism and enlightenment in Buddhism.
According to certain views, the artwork reflects the grief Rivera caused her. Jordán, on the other hand, proposes an alternative interpretation.
“The religiosity of the painting is not in the fact that Frida carries Diego in her thoughts,” Jordán informed me. “The fact that she bears him as a third eye, and Diego has a third eye of his own, reflects that his affection for her made her transcend to another dimension of existence.”
In other words, Kahlo illustrated how people connect with their faith via love.
“I connected with her heart and writings,” said Cris Melo, a 58-year-old American artist whose favorite Kahlo piece is the one mentioned above. “We had the same love language, and similar history of heartache.”
Melo, unlike Kahlo, was not involved in a bus accident that penetrated her pelvis and resulted in a lifetime of surgery, abortions, and leg amputations.
Melo, however, claimed to have suffered from bodily pain for years. And amid that anguish, afraid that her strength might wane, she told herself, “If Frida could handle this, so can I.”
Even though most of her work shows her emotional and physical agony, Kahlo’s paintings do not evoke melancholy or helplessness. On the contrary, she is viewed as a woman — not just an artist — capable of dealing with a wounded body but never losing her spirit.
“Frida inspires many people to be consistent,” said Amni, a London-based Spanish artist who only goes by his creative name and uses artificial intelligence to reimagine Kahlo’s work.
“Other artists have inspired me, but Frida has been the most special because of everything she endured,” she remarked. “Despite her suffering, the heartbreak, the accident, she was always firm.”
With him, as with Melo, Kahlo’s most unforgettable pieces are those in which Rivera appears on her forehead, almost like a third eye.
According to Jordán, Kahlo struck a chord that most artists of her day did not. Influenced by revolutionary nationalism, muralists such as Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros maintained a distance from their audience through academic works primarily concentrating on their social, historical, and political beliefs.
Kahlo, on the other hand, was open about her physical difficulties, bisexuality, and the variety of ideas that weigh on the human spirit.
In “The Wounded Deer,” she is transformed into an animal whose body bleeds from being shot with arrows. And, like a martyr in Catholic imagery, Kahlo’s expression is composed.
On Anniversary Of Frida Kahlo’s Death, Her Art’s Spirituality Keeps Fans Engaged Around The Globe
Kahlo, who supported Marxist theory, saw the Catholic Church as emasculating, meddling, and racist. Despite her dislike for the organization, she recognized that devotion leads to a positive spiritual journey.
A decade after her accident, undoubtedly overwhelmed by her survival, Kahlo began collecting votive gifts, which are little paintings that Catholics offer in appreciation for miracles. Her Blue House still houses the 473 votive offerings.
Jordán speculated that Kahlo may have considered her survival a miracle. “The only difference is that she, due to her context, did not attribute that miracle to a deity of Catholic origin, but to the generosity of life.”
Perhaps that is why, in her final days, she painted a sequence of brilliant, colorful watermelons as her last work.
SOURCE – (AP)
