Lorena Fernandez, Ph.D. 

  MY NURSE AND I, 1937

  A FEW LITTLE PRICKS, 1935

 TREE OF HOPE, KEEP FIRM, 1946

 MARXISM WILL GIVE HEALTH TO THE SICK, 1954

The art of Frida Kahlo is usually seen in light of her life story. This is not surprising, since her life story is compelling and filled with suffering, passion, and almost heroic strength. During the first decade of the twentieth century Frida Kahlo was born in the Coyoacan province ofMexico. At six years old she was stricken with polio, which rendered her right leg shorter and weaker than her left leg. When she was seventeen years old, a trolley car hit the bus on which she traveled. In the accident a heavy rod impaled her. The rod entered her body at the hip and exited her vagina. The injuries were made worse by a passer-by who removed the rod at the scene of the accident. Also due to the accident she suffered several pelvic fractures, fractures of the spine, collarbone, right leg, dislocation of her elbow, a dislocated and crushed right foot, and complications that included peritonitis and cystitis. She endured extended periods of pain and immobility and was left unable to bear children. In the thirty years that she lived after her accident, she endured thirty-two orthopedic surgeries.

What quality of life could this handicapped woman possibly have? Did she live gripped by a deep depression? Did she spend her life in loneliness and celibacy? Was she a sad shriveled shell lying in her deathbed or did a tireless nurse wheel her around the halls of some sanatorium until she finally died in obscurity? What did she look like? Was she the face of death and despair? A person who knew only of these tragedies in the life of Frida Kahlo might conclude that she was unable to accomplish anything in her life other than existing for a few painful years.

This remarkable Mexican woman lived for forty-seven years. She started to paint during her convalescence from the trolley car accident. In the thirty years that she lived after her terrible accident, and in between her thirty-two orthopedic surgeries, she accomplished the following: 

1. She painted over 200 striking paintings, some of which today fetch around 1.3 million US Dollars.
2. She traveled and exhibited her paintings in the art capitals of the world.
3.  She taught painting at the Ministry of Public Education’sSchoolofPaintinginMexico.
4.  She married the larger than life Mexican muralist Diego Rivera.
5. She had a tempestuous love life and some of the most interesting men in modern history were her lovers.
6.  She was an outspoken political activist who even the year of her death, 1954, took part in a demonstration protestingU.S.intervention in Guatemala.
7. She was an outspoken defender of freedom. She wrote to the president ofMexicoto protest the covering up of a Rivera mural.
8. She was passionate about learning and a constant seeker of knowledge. 

Those who knew her remembered her as an intelligent and vivacious woman of sharp wit and exceptional charisma. She has been regarded as a symbol of beauty, strength in adversity and a kind of phoenix that through art rises from the ashes of her life experience.

Frida Kahlo was an extraordinary woman artist deeply involved in the politics of the world of her time. Her sociological views regarding indigenous people, disabled people, women, and the proletariat are still very relevant today, and coming more and more into public awareness especially in developed countries. As a radical activist, her sociological views are evident in her life as well as in her art.

The importance of the art of Frida Kahlo rests not only on its aesthetic and emotional qualities, but also on its sociological message aimed towards the healing of society. The ever increasing following generated by Frida Kahlo, her art and her life makes it relevant to call attention to her positive sociological message. People for whom she is a role model must realize that she was neither completely self-involved nor self-absorbed. She was not exclusively focused on her own physical and emotional suffering. She had many social, political and intellectual concerns as well.

Discussing her paintings is an aesthetic and emotional delight as well as an opportunity to create awareness about the need for equality in the areas of gender, race, and physical ability. The example set by Frida Kahlo might inspire artists to use their gift also as a tool to promote social change and social awareness. If Frida Kahlo is a role model for women, her work could inspire those women to educate themselves to develop a social and political consciousness and to use it. Frida Kahlo is a role model for the able-bodied who might be inspired to make a difference for those who are not. Also as a role model for the sick and disabled, Frida Kahlo provides an opportunity to inspire them to involve themselves in the world, a situation that can improve their social status. She shows an effective way in which a disabled person can create awareness about her situation while using art as a tool for self-healing.

Four paintings have been chosen for this project. Each of them deals primarily with one aspect of the sociological message of Frida Kahlo. The first painting is My Nurse and I or I Suckle, 1937. This painting will be analyzed in terms of its role in highlighting and reclaiming or uplifting the Indian heritage of Mexico as well as its feminist message and the implications of the Madonna with Female-child imagery.

The second painting that will be analyzed is A Few Little Pricks, 1935. Here the main focus will be the trivialization of the suffering of women with in the tradition of Machismo. A second interesting approach to this painting is Frida Kahlo’s use of visualization as a way to understand disturbing events. This type of visualization can be found in some of her most striking paintings dealing with the most difficult trials that she faced during her life. One example is the painting Henry Ford Hospital. In it Frida lays naked on a blood stained white bed. She holds red ribbons whose ends are attached to objects related to her miscarriage, one of the objects being a male fetus.

The third painting that will be analyzed is Tree of Hope, Keep Firm, 1946. The main focus of this analysis will be the perceptions of helplessness and power as well as the ability to draw from sorrow to create art.

Finally, the last painting that will be analyzed is Marxism Will Give Health to the Sick, 1954. The focus of this analysis will be the understanding of her pain and her illness which Frida Kahlo arrives at in middle age. In this painting she transcends her individuality to take upon herself the illnesses of society. She no longer looks for a cure of her suffering within the medical profession or religious faith alone. At middle age she supplements these sources of solace by looking for a cure in a political ideology. By taking on her shoulders the suffering of all of society, her own suffering is exalted and dignified. Frida Kahlo represents society and her illness represents what ails and sickens society at large.