Frida Kahlo-The Two Fridas

Painted in 1939, Oil on Canvas, 67x67 inches. It was believed to be an expression of Frida's feelings about her divorce with Diego Rivera. This was the first large-scale self portrait she has ever done. Frida wore her heart on her sleeve & in this case it was literally almost. On the right, the Frida is holding a small portrait of Diego. It relates to Drawing because first off it's a self portrait which we're about to do. And it's a very expressive painting with how Frida felt. This painting illustrating a literal split between her two selves is from this period of turmoil & self-doubt. The composition is striking. On the right is the Mexican Frida in traditional tehuana dress. On the left is European Frida in a colonial white dress, possibly intended to be wedding garb. The two women are seated on a green bench, holding hands. The anatomy of their hearts is superimposed on them both; the one belonging to the European self is seen through a hole in her dress at the breast. A blood line originates at a cameo of Diego as a child held by the Frida on the right. It twines between them both & is ultimately terminated by a medical implement held by the Frida on the left. Blood stains intermingle with the red flowers at the hem of the dress. I choose this because I love how she expresses herself is so bold & something that I've never seen or would think of doing with a self portrait.

Frida Kahlo said "Since my subjects have always been my sensations, my states of mind and the profound reactions that life has been producing in me, I have frequently objectified all this in figures of myself, which were the most sincere and real thing that I could do in order to express what I felt inside and outside of myself."