WHAT A PAINTER DESPITE ALL THAT PAIN...

janvier 09, 2014

I’m not too sure when I discovered Frida Khalo. Probably during the period « Fridamania » Due to her intense suffering she certainly became a legend for us all. It was probably in the early 90’s. I can’t remember the date or the year but scouting around I discovered this…..

THE Face of Frida : Frida Kahlo is everywhere. The late Mexican artist has inspired a craze that has captivated Madonna, museums, mug makers and the popular imagination.

The Los Angeles Times in 1991.

Fridamania

She inspired designers, writers, advertising agents…..and probably many more. I had seen exhibitions where her work had been included and a very small exhibition of her paintings at the beginning of the century. This time however, it was « Art in Fusion » her work along side Diego Rivera, her long time partner.

They were inseparable and both had a shared passion for their country (Mexico) and committed to the same political struggle.   Her work is very different from Rivera’s which doesn't always inspire me. I find it static (apart perhaps from the huge political paintings he did) although his early work in France even if he was influenced by the cubists is quite "me". His later portraits which I find rather like clothes models seen in shop windows. However, I should add that I prefer his work when I see it alone but somehow Frida's work is stronger for me.

Rivera - around 1916

Rivera - The Conquest

Rivera Revolution

Frieda Khalo -1944 Mme Morilla

Rivera Retrato-Do-Irene-Phillips-Olmedo-1955-small

Rivera - Le feu 1929

He had been married before in Europe and then met Frieda in 1928. Love at first sight and they were married a year later 1929. It was a passionate relationship caused mainly by Diego’s infidelities but it lasted until Frieda died in 1954. Diego died three years later. I might add that Frieda too seem to seduce the opposite sex quite easily, which doesn’t surprise me as I find her quite beautiful.

Their work differs immensely. Frieda’s reveals the turbulent upheavals in her life with the periods of intense physical pain, the result of a serious accident in 1925. Frida was a passenger in a bus that collided with a train. As a result of this accident, in which several passengers were killed, her abdomen was pierced by a metal bar. The painting of the bus is hardly realistic. More like a station. The people in the bus are also very real. Or Art Brut .......

Frida Kahlo Bus 1929

Following an operation she was confined to her bed and there she painted lying down with the help of an easel and a suspended mirror. There were miscarriages and long periods of chronic suffering. Yet her work although depicting these horrific periods has life and somehow for me, even hope. She’s passionate, expressing her feminist position. Nearly everything is in a small format in comparison with Diego’s. She created an iconic status for herself. Her portraits come alive and it is not difficult to « feel » her pain and suffering. That is why I admire her, her work and have done so ever since I discovered it.