Analysis of Frida Kahlo’s Painting The Two Fridas

The art piece that I chose was 4.9.18b (p. 676) Frida Kahlo, The Two Fridas. This art piece was made by Frida Kahlo herself in 1939. The dimensions are 5’8” X 5’8”, the medium is an Oil on canvas. You can find this wonderful piece at Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, Mexico. All this was found in my class book “Gateways to Art Understanding the Visual Arts” page 676.

Formal Analysis: When you first look at this painting your eyes go straight to the hands that are intertwined. This shows that both Frida’s are connected to each other Both hearts are shown but one heart is open while the other is closed. The surgical scissors are trying to stop the bleeding from the vein that comes from the heart. As Frida is holding the scissors, she is bleeding out all over her European dress which shows that she was empty and drained. The sky behind the two Frida’s is dark and stormy which had to do with the element of color. The left Frida is seen holding a small portrait of her ex-husband Diego Rivera. Frida includes her family’s background, her ex-husband, and her physical pain all in this one painting.

Psychological Analysis: The Two Fridas was made after her divorce with her ex-husband Diego Rivera and at a hard time of her life where she had gotten into a collision on a bus ride. Before she was married and divorced by Diego Rivera, Frida learned the hard way what pain was and not only mentally. Before her bus accident which left her with an injury that disabled her, she suffered from polio having to compromise her right foot. While she was recovering her father was the one that brought her art supplies and that is where it all started. You can see the pain that it brought her splitting her between both of her backgrounds making her torn and bleeding out. In all of Frida’s artwork you can see the truthfulness and pain in all the people that she painted, and you can also see all the emotion that Frida puts into her works of art.

The elements that I found while looking at this painting are the color, texture, volume, line, and volume. I say this because the colors that Frida used to differentiate the left Frida to the right show how one part feels closer to her European side while the other is closer to her Mexican side, so it is as if she feels split by the two. She also used a darker tone of color for the background of her painting showing us an apocalyptic scenery. The value that this painting has is how it is a two-dimensional painting but when you look at it has depth like on the skirts and tops that the Frida’s are wearing the lightness and darkness make it look three dimensional. The line that is shown is the connection of the hearts from her European side to her Mexican side and how it tangles with her left arm. The texture that you can see is on her white top of her European outfit.

The principals that I found while looking at The Two Fridas were the focal point, balance, proportion, emphasis, and contrast. The focal point that I found is their hands that are being held by each other symbolize togetherness. I say that this is the focal point because it is the first thing you see when you look at the picture other than the hearts and it is like a bond that they both have. This painting has a type of balance called symmetrical balance due to the fact that if you split it in half the left and the right both look nearly identical except for the hearts and what is found in their hands. The emphasis that Frida made this painting is the hearts that are connected to each other by a vein. The scale and proportion that Frida made this painting is standard human proportion, the hearts are a normal human size, the Frida’s bodies are also normal nothing is blown out of proportion everything is just normal.

In my opinion Frida Kahlo suffered a great amount of physical and mental pain with everything that she went through. To me it is astonishing how she never let that change who she was nor stopping her from what she loves the most. It is truly empowering to hear stories for her and see her artwork because every painting or drawing that she has ever made even if it is in her journals has so much emotion in it. It is beautiful to see that she never gave up.

Works Cited

• DeWitte, Debra J., et al. Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts. third ed., Thames & Hudson, 2018, https://digital.wwnorton.com/gateways3.
• “Frida Kahlo and Her Paintings.” Henri Matisse, https://www.fridakahlo.org/.
• “Kahlo, The Two Fridas (Las Dos Fridas).” Khan Academy, Khan Academy, https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/later-europe-and-americas/modernity-ap/a/kahlo-the-two-fridas-las-dos-fridas.