A Fascination with the Self
Frida Kahlo, a revolutionary, a poet, but above all an artist, has become one of the leading icons in women’s art today. She has created a mythic status for herself by portraying the theme of resilience over affliction unflinchingly in her artwork. Kahlo's appeal comes in many forms. Her works incite rebellion in their humor, honesty, and blunt sexuality. A certain confidence matched with equal vulnerability can be seen in her self-portraits, which narrate the story of her life. In recent years, a religion has formed over the Internet called Kahloism, citing her as the one and only Goddess. Her face can be seen on candles, magnets, and US postage stamps. Her life has even been dominated by the silver screen, in which a famous actress portrayed Kahlo, demonstrating that Kahlo has reached mythic status in 21st century culture. However, Frida Kahlo has helped to create her own mythic status. She has told her life story from the perspective she wanted the world to understand it: through her paintings. She made her own brand of her image by repeating the bushy unibrow and costume of traditional indigenous clothing of Mexico she consistently adorned. Frida Kahlo valued her eccentric characteristics and refused to follow the normal path of a woman in the 20th century, expressing her individualism through her art.
There is a general belief that artists need to have a lifetime full of suffering so as to fuel inspiration for their works. Frida Kahlo experienced much pain in her life that provided a lifetime of paintings, which detailed everything to her viewers as unapologetically as possible. Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo Calderón was born on July 6, 1907 in Coyoacan, but she frequently cited 1910, the year of the Mexican Revolution, as her birth year because of her sympathy with the cause. Her mother was mestiza and her father was creole with German decent. This theme of accepting both parts of her heritage is seen in many of Kahlo ’s works. In 1925, Kahlo was involved in a severe streetcar accident that caused a metal handrail to pierce her abdomen and exit through her vagina. She was told she would never walk again. During her recovery, Kahlo began painting, and slowly regained her power to walk. In 1926, her first work, “Self-Portrait Wearing a Velvet Dress,” was completed. 
Kahlo met Diego Rivera in 1929, leading to their tumultuous marriage that provided much inspiration for her paintings. In 1930, Kahlo and Rivera traveled around the US to do art and promote their exhibitions. Frida had her first miscarriage, a theme that was repeated many times in her works, in 1932. During the very turbulent year of 1934, Kahlo learned that Diego cheated on her with her sister. In revolt, she began her series of affairs, cut her hair, and did not paint. She had another miscarriage this year as well. In 1939, Kahlo and Rivera divorced. From 1950 to 1953, Kahlo ’s health deteriorated, and she underwent many surgeries for her back and legs. On April 13, 1954, Frida Kahlo died of a pulmonary embolism, but many of her followers believe that she committed suicide.
Kahlo, in a sense, gave birth to herself through her life and through her paintings. She was cited many times as changing her age, contradicting herself in the telling of her own history many times. By telling her life story through her paintings, she gave birth to herself in the sense that she developed the image of the person she perceived herself as. Viewers only received that story of her life – the story she gave them through her brushstrokes. 
In “My Birth,” Kahlo portrayed herself giving birth to herself. The time in which she painted this work coincides with both her mother’s death and one of her miscarriages. She cited that she felt as though she was dead, explaining why the mother giving birth has a sheet covering her head. In “My Nurse and I,” Kahlo dealt with the childhood struggle of being breastfeed by a wet nurse, by portraying an adult version of herself suckling the breast of a figure wearing a mask, 
but retaining obvious elements of Kahlo: stringy hair and bushy eyebrows. The nurse also represents the indigenous, Mexican side of Kahlo. The idea of la chingada, or the shameful and victimized version of the Mexican mother, is represented by mask over the nurse’s face. In the breasts of the nurse is the embodiment of the Mexican earth, from which Kahlo is drinking, clearly showing the link Kahlo felt to her homeland. By portraying herself as the mother of herself, she forces the viewer to question of whom we are actually products.
There are many themes that prevail throughout the history of Frida Kahlo’s artwork. Primarily, a fascination with the self can be seen through the repetition of self-portraits she painted. In many of her works, Kahlo focused on the eyes, especially her own, framing them by her signature bushy eyebrows. As she grew older, Kahlo explored what it is to be a Mexican women and how the concept clashes within culture and gender roles. She became introduced to Mexicanidad, or the movement to recover Mexico’s mythic past and reconcile it with modern politics, when she became involved with Diego Rivera. Lastly, Kahlo painted many pictures portraying the unborn fetuses resulting from her infertility because of a bus accident. The themes of Kahlo’s work produce a biological and natural truth to reveal to the viewer, creating a window into the life of this famous Mexican artist.
Self-portraits were a major part of Kahlo ’s art life. They, at times, overtook her other themes. Some would question whether these self-portraits were born out of a self-important attitude. In fact, these painting teach us how vulnerable and insecure the artist truly was. At the same time, we can marvel at her bravery for revealing her interior to the world. Kahlo once said, “I paint self-portraits because I am so 
often alone, because I am the person I know best.” In “Las Dos Fridas,” Kahlo painted the struggle she had with her identity. She shows the hearts exposed of both sides of her. The Mexican Frida has an undamaged heart, representing the Frida loved by Diego. The other Victorian Frida has a ravaged, bloody heart, the side of Frida that Diego could never love. This painting provides a window deep into the emotions of the artist, depicting her struggle with her two heritages. In “Raíces,” 
Kahlo portrayed herself as part of the earth, linked to the land she vehemently defended and loved. A more playful, innocent portrayal of Kahlo is seen in “Self-Portrait with Monkey,” in which Kahlo explored symbols of her native Mexico. In her various self-portraits, she represented herself as rich, beautiful, manly, dependent, and exotic. She covered the broad range of emotions and contradictions that defined her throughout her life. These self-portraits helped her rise to mythic status. 
Her followers can find a full array of human emotions to identify themselves with in her portraits. She overemphasized the truth through exaggeration to attempt a more meaningful theme to present to the viewer. Kahlo communicated to the viewer the contradiction of a strong, heroine-like exterior with a self-doubting interior.
Kahlo also explores common struggles associated with being a Mexican woman. Like most Latin Americans, Kahlo was a mestiza. Her father was white with German descent and her mother was mestiza. 
In “Self-Portrait on the Border Line Between Mexico and the United States,” she explored what it is to be of these two origins, symbolizing characteristics each culture. She also explored the clash between Mexican and American cultures. She distinguished America by industry, pollution, and an overwhelming sense of emptiness. It is in Detroit where Kahlo suffered her first miscarriage. She characterized Mexico by its indigenous history. Kahlo portrayed herself in the center; struggling between which culture she should claim as her own. Another struggle of being a Mexican woman is confronting the subordinate role of women in society. 
In a rather disturbing painting, “A Few Small Nips,” Kahlo explored the idea of el macho and la chingada. This is one of her bloodiest paintings and forces the viewer to examine the lower role of women in Mexican society and how they are continually abused by these “small nips” by the man. But, over time, these small abuses leave the women tortured and weak. By forcing the viewer to examine this extreme violence, Kahlo forces the spectator to deal with Mexican cultural values of gender roles.
As Frida grew as a woman, the themes of the accident that left her permanently disabled and infertile and her relationship with Diego Rivera became more apparent in her work. Because of a bus 
accident that left her with a crushed pelvic, a torn uterus, and the inability to bear children, she dealt with her infertility in an extremely honest, graphic way in her paintings. In “Henry Ford Hospital,” Frida painted her heartbreaking miscarriage that happened in Detroit. She painted naturalistic images of her associations with this painful time in her life. Near the end of her life, 
Frida was constantly having surgeries to try to fix her back and leg problems. In “Self Portrait with Doctor Farill,” Frida gives her doctor her trademark feature of a unibrow, demonstrating her appreciation of his care for her. Frida’s work was 
almost immediately influenced by her love for Diego Rivera. In “Frida and Diego Rivera,” she clearly portrayed Rivera as the dominating presence in the relationship. He is the one holding the painting tools while she stands next to him subordinately. As time passed, their relationship became more painful for Kahlo. Rivera was known as a womanizer, which Kahlo lived with for many years. It was after Kahlo discovered that Rivera slept with her sister that she 
ended the relationship. One of her angrier pieces of that time is “Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair,” showing her self-renewal process of renouncing the long hair and Mexicanidad-inspired clothing Diego loved so much. 
In “Diego and I,” Kahlo revealed her undying yet pain-ridden obsession with Rivera. Kahlo ’s two accidents, the streetcar crash that left her infertile and her relationship with Diego Rivera, provided emotion-filled themes for much of her later artwork.
Frida Kahlo created a mythic being of herself by portraying her life through her art. This is not to say her paintings do not speak the truth. She rather exaggerated, be it physical features or acts of violence, to portray the shock of deeper meaning. The author Raquel Tibol spent much time interviewing Kahlo during the last days before her death. A story from that encounter exemplifies the myth created by Kahlo in her paintings, but also how that myth took on a life of its own. Tibol was in Kahlo’s room ten days before her death. Kahlo asked the author to get her a painting she recently created, portraying Kahlo ’s face in the middle of a sunflower. Kahlo decided to destroy the painting by scraping the paint off the canvas with a knife because she seems “to be smothering the flower.” Ten days later, at her burial, Siquieros, a friend of Kahlo ’s said to Tibol, “When the iron slab supporting her body started to enter [the oven] and the flames set her hair on fire, her face seemed to be smiling in the center of a sunflower.” Even after death, Kahlo continued to surprise and mystify her followers. Frida Kahlo has stood the test of time to be viewed even today as one of the most talented artists of her time, constantly challenging the norms society and culture forced upon her.
