The Two Fridas

The Two Fridas. Frida Kahlo. 1939 C.E. Oil on canvas.

• Facial hair indelibly marks the self portraits of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. 
• In an era when women still wore elaborate hairstyles, hosiery, and attire, Kahlo was a rebellious loner, often dressed in indigenous clothing. Kahlo flouted both conventions of beauty and social expectations in her self-portraits. 
• These powerful and unflinching self images explore complex and difficult topics including her culturally mixed heritage, the harsh reality of her medical conditions, and the repression of women.
• The double self portrait The Two Fridas, 1939 features two seated figures holding hands and sharing a bench in front of a stormy sky. 
• She painted this canvas she was divorced from Diego Rivera, the acclaimed Mexican muralist. Before she married Rivera in 1929, she wore the modern European dress of the era, evident in her first self portrait where she dons a red velvet dress with gold embroidery. 
• With Rivera’s encouragement, Kahlo embraced attire rooted in Mexican customs.
• In her second self portrait (left) her accessories reference distinct periods in Mexican history—her necklace is a reference to the pre-Columbian jadite of the Aztecs, and the earrings are colonial in style—while her simple white blouse is a nod to peasant women. 
• The self portraits from the 1930s reflect Kahlo’s growing penchant for indigenous attire and hair-styling. 
• In her brief lifetime, Kahlo painted about two hundred works of art, many of which are self portraits. 
• The two Fridas clasp hands tightly. This bond is echoed by the vein that unites them. Where one is weakened by an exposed heart, the other is strong; where one still pines for her lost love. 
• Kahlo's work often graphically exposes human anatomy, a topic she knew well after a childhood bout with polio deformed her right leg and a bus accident left her disabled and unable to bear children when she was eighteen years old. She would endure 32 operations as a result of this accident.
• Kahlo utilized blood as a visceral metaphor of union. 
• Blood on lap suggests many abortions, miscarriages, and surgeries in her lifetime