Analysis and Interpretation of Frida Kahlo's Painting Two Fridas

Description

This painting is a self portrait of Frida Kahlo, in two split personalities. The Two Frida's was made in 1939. It is oil on canvas, standing at a height of 581/2 square. It is hanging in the Museo de Arte, in Mexico City. There are two Fridas, sitting in adjacent chairs and holding hands, staring back at the viewer. The two Frida's are sitting on a green weaved bench on a brownish smooth floor, and behind them is a painting of blue and gray sky on a wall.

One Frida is wearing a native Indian custom (a tehuana skirt) and a blouse. The blouse is blue with a gold trim, and the skirt is green with a white train. This Frida is holding a little portrait of a man. At first glance the little portrait looks like a pin or a big button, until one gets a closer look at it. The other Frida is dressed in a white European long, style dress, with flower embroidery at the end of the skirt.

The two Frida's are connected to each other by a joint circulatory system with their hearts exposed. The heart of the Frida in white is cut and torn open. The artery that connects the two Fridas is severed. The Frida in the white European Victorian dress holds a surgical clamp and appears to have snipped the blood flow to her, thus one can see blood dripping over her lap forming a pool of blood. The heart of the Mexican Frida is fully intact and appears to be feeding off blood from the Victorian Frida. Both Frida's have their hair braided and pulled upward, this hair style typifying a true Frida hairstyle. They both have red rosy cheeks and the long thick eyebrows that come together in a concave form.

Analysis

Frida uses different colors to convey the message she is trying to put across to her viewers. There is a use of earthly colors in the clothing of the Mexican Frida to convey her cultural background. The other Fridas dress is all white, with reddish rose flowers on it. There is a repetition of light strokes of green in the turbulent sky, and as you come closer to the chair it gets lighter and more visible, and then it changes to goldish green color on the skirt of the Mexican Frida. As you view the painting at first, you get more focused in on the European Frida, because the use of light is focused in on her, I guess to show that she is of European heritage. The Mexican Frida, has a darker complexion, because there is no light hitting her, thus conveying her Mexican roots. She uses red color for the heart, vein, and the pool of blood, to reflect the redness of them. There is a use of unity in this painting. All the objects in this painting come together to convey a specific message being put forth by Frida. By looking at this painting, one might think of it as being balanced, but in actual form it is asymmetrically balanced. The wall in the back is accented by the heads of the two Fridas. This provides the focus of the painting, the visible hearts.

Interpretation

The artists interpretation of her work reflects a sad time in her life, when she was separated from her husband Diego. The two women reflect her two backgrounds, the European and Mexican heritage. The Mexican Frida feeding off the blood from the Victorian Frida, symbolizes how Frida Khalo was really proud of her Mexican background and wanted to keep hold on it, thus it had to kill off the European side off her.

My understanding of what I get from this painting is that, Frida was torn between her two heritage, but at the same time both helped her get through the difficult times in her life. But I believe from the painting, she got more happiness from being the Mexican Frida, than the European Frida. The Mexican Frida in the green skirt represents the part of Frida which was unable to have children because she was only a (Mexican) teenage girl; even though the green symbolizes fertility. The European Frida in white symbolizes what she wished to have, (the life, the joy of having kids, and happiness with Diego), but couldnt get. That is why this Frida is bleeding to death.

The turbulent sky in the back represents the dark little secrets, her hopes, and all her dreams, which are hidden in the absence of light, which represents fulfillment. The medical tool, the white Frida is holding represents the doctors who were unable to help her have children, or her dream of maybe becoming a doctor. The pool on her lap, specifically her womb, represents her inability to have children, because her womb has been fractured. And the Mexican Frida holding a picture of Diego, represents the sadness she feels from losing him, so she holds his picture to remind her of what they had together and the hope of getting him back.

Judgment

This painting is really good, and it reflects a true Frida Khalo painting. I have seen a lot of her paintings, and I love her work, but this one caught my eye. This painting was raved as one of Frida's best, and I can see why. It contains a lot of imagery and symbolism, all pertaining to an incident or event that happened or was happening at the time the painting was done. Frida was a true beauty; she was never ashamed to show her long thick eyelashes and the dark hairline or upper lip. Either you loved her or you hated her, and that was who Frida was. Her paintings will continue to live on for centuries to come, and will continue to cause awe in anyone who views them. However, no matter ones perception of her paintings, they cannot fail to captivate all viewers. That was Kahlo.