Analysis of The Two Fridas Painting and Its Historical Context

“The Two Fridas” is painted within the year 1939 in oil on canvas with dimensions 173 x 173 cm, it's located in the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico. The first aspect we see is a double self-portrait, wherein the two Fridas are sitting on a bench. It is easy to notice that both Fridas are connected by the hearts, which we see through their clothes. The hearts also have arteries, which link both Fridas by the hands. Each Frida is wearing different clothing styles, it is stated that one represents the European Frida and the other the Mexican Frida; The European shows that her white dress is stained with blood due to a cut artery, meaning her heart is not complete; whilst the Mexican Frida has in her right hand a mini portrait of Diego Rivera, showing that her heart is complete.

The first impression that this paintings offers us is the duality of Frida, she gives the double imaginative and prescient that Frida has on herself, that on the one hand she is robust and in love and on the other she has a completely broken heart, on this Frida is given to be aware the ache and struggling that this causes her due to the fact her white dress is stained with blood. This painting is strongly marked by way of line, mainly as regards the human figures, that have a drawing ending; However, she no longer abandons the coloration as she makes use of it to make the distinction between the two: one dressed in white suggests her European side (her mother was Spanish), in addition to what her society expects and the other is perceived as more colourful is the Frida Mexican, and it’s the clothes she wore to please her husband (Diego Rivera). Frida Kahlo opts for using linear perspective, setting the vanishing point in the union of the palms of each Fridas, in this manner, the center of the painting is the ambivalence that someone can have, in this case herself, however at the same time these two different elements are deeply united.

The immense comparison that exists among the closed and stormy sky with the burning of the earth makes note of the duality that exists between heaven and earth, existence and death, the latter is excellent reflected in the hearts, and that one is in pristine condition, is still beating and the alternative is having the heart broken, which marks an exceptional evaluation to be aware the duality sky-earth, life-death, the latter is better proven in hearts due to the fact that one is beating and the other is damaged. The subject of duality is present in all aspects of the composition of “two Fridas”. In 1939 this particular work become painted, this year is very vital and is considered a key point for the universal and Mexican history. At that point the president of Mexico became Lázaro Cárdenas, his government sympathized with the republic since the very start of the Civil War, and one of the main goals became to rescue from the war and the French camps all who have been in opposition to the notable dictator of Spain. It is expected that 25% of the exiles were intellectuals or elite, for them the house of Spain was founded in Mexico, this vicinity become centered so that each one of them could preserve with their studies and paintings of their specialty away from a hostile environment, This represented a great improvement of culture, education and scientific studies within the welcoming country, this is to mention that the American continent was enriched in an essential way with the appearance of these kinds of intellectuals.

After the 1919 revolution, Mexican art was on the lookout for a national identity and a movement referred to as muralism become born, represented by: José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, etc. They took the murals to public buildings where they instructed the story and the ideology of a brand new Mexico that took up the wealth of the past, its traditions and pre-Hispanic folklore. Frida expresses her very own experiences in her works, it is exactly what she is living in her present, how she translates it and the way she believes that others live it. She paints after her divorce, as already cited before, “Las dos Fridas”, which can be discovered within Surrealism (1939), because the surrealists do no longer need to copy truth but prefer to capture their reality, which is what they interpret of her desires, or in the case of Frida, her personal studies, when you consider that she was able to create stunning paintings from them.

Frida differs from the surrealists because she does not pretend to paint her desires or liberate the unconscious, but through the technique of surrealism expresses her personal experiences, which emanate struggling; for instance in “The two Fridas” makes use of the collage when placing the hearts within the chest of both Fridas, seeing that these appear superimposed. It can be concluded that Frida Kahlo via this painting wanted to say or alternativing express the deep pain she felt due to the cease of a complicated relationship full of troubles and emotional wounds; that’s why in a Frida the heart is destroyed, completely damaged, this indicates that part of her died, due to the fact her ex-husband took her away leaving her adrift in a world complete of injustice that she tries to cut with the scissors that this Frida herself in her right hand, however she can't obtain this considering her white dress is stained by the blood that spills, this is related to the broken heart, this symbolizes that now she is a stained girl due to the fact she is divorced, something that during time became very strange and people used to judge a lot of women who went through similar problems such as divorce.

On the other hand you see a woman who was once in love, with a powerful heart, she has in her right hand a mini portrait of her beloved, is dressed in her husband’s favourite dressed and each are united through a vein that connects to their hearts, this indicates the union among the present and the past.