Self Portraiture in Regard to Frida Kahlo Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Self Portraiture in Regard to Frida Kahlo - Essay Example The paper "Self Portraiture in Regard to Frida Kahlo" analyzes the art and life of Frida Kahlo. Rather than restricting her art, this confinement helped encourage Kahlo as it was one of the few things she could do from her bed. The fact that she was so isolated in her practice may have also contributed to her willingness to experiment with artistic forms as can be seen in several of her self-portraits, such as â€Å"The Two Fridas† and â€Å"The Broken Column.† Kahlo’s 1939 self-portrait â€Å"The Two Fridas† demonstrates a tremendous struggle to find balance between the past and the present and the individual and social expectations as seen through line, shape, color and space. Kahlo represents these ideas as a dual image that relates back to Kahlo’s polio-inflicted childhood. â€Å"During that time, she created an imaginary friend who would later be reflected in a painting called ‘The Two Fridas.’ Explaining the painting in her diary she wrote, ‘I experienced intensely an imaginary friendship with a little girl more or less the same age as me. I followed her in all her movements and while she danced, I told her my secret problems†. She invokes this same relationship at an older age to express her feelings at the time of her divorce from Diego in the shape of an imperfect mirror image. Color plays a big role in understanding the image as one Frida is dressed in European clothing, indicating that this is the actual European half of Frida gained from her father as well as the portion of her that Diego.