Frida Kahlo's The Broken Column

When learning about the U.S. -Mexico borderlands with regards to female painters, one cannot forget to include Frida Kahlo. Kahlo gained lots of popularity for her art work in the 1930’s and 1940’s. She painted lots of self portraits and displayed her life experiences through her art. Many people have argued that she made a huge impact to modern art and that her artwork will remain a true inspiration for many new artists. Her creativity and fame has set an example of how a Mexican woman can succeed in a country that has done so much to keep Mexican women in the bottom tier. Intriguingly, her fame was a result of her ability to include controversial topics in her art. She was very expressive on how she felt during difficult times in her life

Thus, this can explain how Fridas circumstances affected her long term career because she was able to portray pain that was relatable to other people. To add, "A strong individualist who was disengaged from any official artistic movement, Kahlo 's artwork has been associated with primitivism, indigenism, and Surrealism.” (Frida Kahlo Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works.) To elaborate, Frida Kahlo 's artwork has grown profoundly influential for feminist studies and postcolonial debates, while Kahlo has become an international cultural icon. Thus, this can explain how Fridas circumstances affected her long term career because Frida legacy lives on today and people hope Kahlo’s work will help and empower more patients to talk about their own pain.

Frida Kahlo was born in Mexico City, Mexico on July 6 in 1907. She is a Mexican self-portrait artist, meaning, that she painted portraits of herself. Frida is considered one of Mexico’s best artist. Her painting experience began after a tragic bus accident in which she suffered from harsh injuries. While recovering from the accident Frida started and finished her first self-portrait painting a year later, then gave it as a gift to her former partner Alejandro Gómez Arias.

Frida Kahlo created many glorious pieces. One of her most intriguing pieces is The Two Fridas. The image is quite symbolic and meaningful. Kahlo was a Mexican artist greatly known for her self portraits and the pain, passion and feminism of her paintings. The name of the piece I choose to analysis is Las dos Fridas, also known as The Two Fridas.

Diego Rivera is a painter and a muralist who had an abstract style in his work. Most of his themes were depicting the lives of the Mexican people. As for Frida Kahlo, she is a self-portrait artist whose style was representational. Her themes were depicting her agony of her medical condition and the sufferings she went through on her miscarriages. In 1933, the couple had a controversial collaboration of a mural called the “Man at the Crossroads” in New York City RCA building which featured Vladmir

Her life was not an easy one but she overcame adversity and created some of the most beautiful pieces of literature, as well as poetry, of the 20th century. Her works prove that you may come from a horrible background but you are able to become someone worth something in the eyes of society. Maya Angelou wanted equality for all and therefor fought alongside Martin Luther King Jr. in the Civil Right Movement of the 60’s.

Diego Rivera was one of the most famous Mexican painters there ever was. He was married to Frida Kahlo who was also a painter. Diego was born in Guanajuato, Mexico, on December 8, 1886, to a wealthy family. He was the son of María Del Pilar Barrientos and Diego Rivera Acosta. Diego had a twin brother named Carlos, who died two years after they were born.

Maya Angelou was a strong African-American women who made an influential impact on the Civil Rights Movement, in bother her actions, and her literature. Her life experiences and courage helped others, and made her work influential. During Maya’s early life, she experienced many hardships that shaped her into the person many remember her as. Born on April 4, 1928, she only lived in St. Louis, MO for three years before her parents got divorced, and Maya, along with her mother and brother, moved in with her grandparents in Arkansas. At the age of eight, raped by her mother’s boyfriend, Maya learned the power that words possess.

In Self-Portrait the images on both sides of the border can be understood as the ideological tools of national propaganda. Kahlo keeps the history alive as she portrays a true vision of Mexico. Frida celebrates the cross-cultural identity that Mexico embraced after the turmoil of the revolution - a heritage of, Indian, American, Spanish, and British to just name a few. Her paintings became a connecting thread of Mexico’s history as she did not neglect tying the time in which she lived to the Aztec past (pbs.org). Victor Zamaudio-Taylor, an art historian, states that she has become "a model for Mexican Americans and Hispanics in the United States because she nurtures a sense of who [we] are and of a long history and of continuities."

Throughout history, art has been used to explore the identity of individuals and of society. Two artists who encapsulate both society and their own identities through their works are, Frida Kahlo and Cindy Sherman. Frida Kahlo (1907- 1954) was a Mexican painter known for her "surrealist" self-portraits. Kahlo's paintings "The Two Frida's" and "Self-portrait with cropped hair" embody Kahlo's personal struggles with her identity throughout her life. Contrastingly, Cindy Sherman (1954- ) is an American photographer and film director knows most famously for her controversial portraits.

Maya Angelou, born Marguerite Johnson, lived through an unstable early life. She was born in St. Louis, Arkansas, but moved away to Stamps, Arkansas at age three due to her parents’ divorce. There, Angelou lived with her brother, Bailey, and her paternal grandmother (Galenet - Self and a Song of Freedom in the Southern Tradition). As discussed in her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, seven-year old Maya was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. The man was consequently murdered by her uncles, and Maya, feeling responsible for his death, ceased talking and remained speechless for five years.

She has experienced extreme adversity since she was young, including losing many members of her family to the cruelty of the Guatemalan government. She got involved in social activism very early in her life and followed her parents ' footsteps in opposing the Guatemalan government during the country 's civil war. After organizing protests and movements against the Guatemalan government in the early 1980s, she was forced into exile in Mexico for fear of losing her life. She continued working for the freedom of the Mayan people and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work. She has unceasingly sought retribution for the oppressed Mayan people and gained ground towards that goal.

The social issues of the time are highlighted in the artist’s work. This was done to show that the working class is standing united in the face of oppression or opposition.

One great notion I have developed over the years is that every human has gone through some meaning experiences in his/her life that he/ she can identify with when such experience is depicted through an artwork, painting, photography, or any form of media. After coming in contact with Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother, 1936, artwork (fig 4.151), I feel more connected to this artwork because it speaks directly to me and draws my attention to my personal life experience. This artwork is more of Leo Tolstoy’s definition of art that views art from a social prospective. Lange’s Migrant Mother artwork shows a mother’s strength and determination in the time of extreme need. Observing this artwork, we can conclude that the there’s always a strong, natural

Both living with polio and the injury from the bus accident caused Frida physical pain throughout the years. She also experienced emotional pain especially during her troublesome marriage with Diego Rivera, who was also a famous painter. Both Frida and Diego were constantly unfaithful to each