216697 Curiosities served
Monobrow Highbrow
Previous Entry :: Next Entry
Read/Post Comments (2)
Ever since Steffi and I watched Frida sometime last week I've been wanting to put something in this journal (a substitute for memory) about the film's protagonist. I had certainly seen some of Kahlo's works here and there before but had never given much thought to the creative force behind them.
Unfortunately, I don't have much time at work to dedicate to a proper description of the painter or the film. I will say briefly that the film is certainly woth seeing (there's an all-star cast: Salma Hayek, Edward Norton, Antonio Banderas, Alfred Molina, Ashley Judd, etc.) and gives a thought-provoking, compelling look at the inspired life of Frida Kahlo, a Mexican painter who suffered terribly from polio as well as an extremely debilitating bus accident.
Quickly, a couple of things I learned (or didn't) from the film and/or the DVD extras: Kalhlo's work finally began to get the international recognition it derserves when - get this - Madonna started buying her paintings in the 80s. Kahlo had about 30 operations over the course of her lifetime to help relieve the constant pain caused her by the accident. (This figures to be nearly one operation every two years -- and probably even more frequently) Finally, the film glorifies her work and life but DOES NOT mention the fact that she probably committed suicide. The film, no surprise, let's her go out on a high note...
What follows are two biographies (cut-and-pasted) from websites. Links are provided. Also, I hope to add a few pictures here soon to flesh this entry out a bit more...
And finally, here are a few pictures also scrounged off the web:
***
http://www.getty.edu/artsednet/resources/Maps/Women/Kahlo/artist.html
Frida Kahlo
About the Artist
Frida Kahlo was born of European and Mexican descent in 1907 in the Mexico City suburb of Coyoacán, in the same blue stucco house where she died 47 years later.
She was exceptionally striking; her long dark hair and distinctive bird-wing brows arching over magnetic black eyes reflected her vibrant and adventurous nature.
In 1925, at the age of 18, she was in a bus accident that injured her spine, pelvis, and foot, injuries that led to many hospital stays, operations, and, ultimately, her death. In many ways, her art is a chronicle of her personal pain and strength in the face of endless medical problems. But her talent and spirit (or alegría) became the wellspring of her career.
Most of Kahlo's work—painted on canvas, wooden boards, and tin—depicts her personal story; perhaps most riveting are the artist's many self-portraits. In them, Kahlo often portrays herself in native Mexican dress, surrounded by her many pets and the lush vegetation of her homeland, her forehead or body imprinted with the people and events central to her life. Kahlo's paintings also have the strong silhouettes, insistent detail, overall equality of focus, and bold colors often associated with folk art. Always intense and sometimes realistic or fantastic, her works show that her art and life were inseparable, fierce, timeless, and tragic.
Kahlo loved everything Mexican—the country's saturated colors, folk art, and native dress as well as its commitment to faith and family.
Kahlo was also a dedicated Communist. When she married the famed muralist and social activist Diego Rivera, the couple became well known for their dedication to Mexico's populist causes and pride in their country's native culture. They shared this commitment to Mexicanidad with many artists and intellectuals of the first several decades of the twentieth century—a time known as the Mexican Renaissance. Their visibility attracted famous artists and political figures, many of whom became close friends. One of them as Leon Trotsky, the exiled Russian revolutionary leader, who lived in Kahlo's blue house as a political refugee.
***
http://www.lasmujeres.com/fridakahlo/life.shtml
Frida's Life
Biography
Frida Kahlo was a painter whose work fascinated prominent and diverse artists around the world. The wife of world-renowned Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, Kahlo forged a place in the art world that was completely of her own. Her dramatic work consisted primarily of self-portraits, although she did capture her family and friends on canvas on occasion. Some critics contend that Kahlo's paintings were reflections of her personal history, her relationship with Diego Rivera; her damaged physical condition, her philosophy of nature and life, and her individual and mythological worldview. Although Kahlo never had formal training in art, she developed into an artist who fascinated wide range of fellow artist, including Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein, painter Pablo Picasso, and novelist Andre Breton. In addition to these literary and artistic luminaries, her circle included political figures such as Leon Trotsky and the Rockefeller family.
Frida Kahlo lived between 1907 and 1954 in a time of incredible worldwide movements and changes. The Mexican Revolution occurred just three years after she was born, a development that triggered dramatic social and economic change in Mexico. A new sense of nationalism surged throughout Mexico as the people rejected dictator Porfirio Diaz and his policies, and a renaissance of cultural renewal glorifying Mexico's native roots took place. The Mexican muralist tradition grew out of these changes and proved to be an enduring method of expressing national pride. Kahlo was an active participant in the social, economic and political landscape that characterized that life. Frida Kahlo was born Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderon on July 6, 1907, in her parents' house in Coyoacan, Mexico a suburb of Mexico City.
In about 1935 she dropped the "e" in her first name. Her father one of Mexico's foremost photographers, was the son of Hungarian Jews from the German town of Baden-Baden who emigrated to Mexico. Guillermo Kahlo married her mother Matilde Calderon, a Mexican of Indian and Spanish ancestry. The family home, called the Casa Azul ("Blue House"), was built by Guillermo Kahlo a few years before Frida's birth. She was born, raised, lived and died in her family's home. Kahlo's father had a profound influence on her life. Her mother was a meticulous housekeeper and devout catholic whose conventional patterns of thought created some distance between her and her daughters. Kahlo's father, on the other hand, recognized and encouraged her intellectual independence and curiosity.
At the age of seven, Kahlo was afflicted with polio, a disease that left her right foot turned outward and stunted the growth of her entire right leg. Her father nursed her back to health and subsequently encouraged her to play various active sports not typical for a Mexican girl at that time. Kahlo's bout with polio held her back in school, so in 1922, when she entered the National preparatory School, she falsified her age. Some historians have speculated that she chose 1910 as her birth date to coincide with the year of the Mexican Revolution started. Kahlo was adamant in her commitment to ideals of revolution. She expressed her bond to the Mexican people in her art, in her dress, her behavior, and the decorations of her home. During her days at the National Preparatory School, Kahlo became known as something of a prankster and was a highly visible presence. She often wore elaborate indigenous jewelry and colorful native clothing, and was fond of piling her hair upon her head and decorating brightly with ribbons and bows in the fashion that the natives of Oaxaca, Mexico, favored Kahlo regarded every occasion as a cause for rejoicing, and celebrated birthdays, baptisms, and all the popular holidays with great enthusiasm.
It was at the National Preparatory School that she first met Diego Rivera, an artist whose work she admired. Her attraction to the painter was considerable, and one story from that period of her life alleged that she declared to her school friends her ambition to have a child by Diego Rivera. In 1925, however, Kahlo was involved in a tragic accident that dramatically changed her life. Traveling home from school on a bus, the vehicle collided with a trolley car, driving a piece of iron into her pelvis an back. Kahlo struggled with the effects of this accident and the pain it caused for the rest of her life. She underwent as many as 35 operations over the course of her life, most of them on her spine and her polio-deformed right foot.
Unfortunately, I don't have much time at work to dedicate to a proper description of the painter or the film. I will say briefly that the film is certainly woth seeing (there's an all-star cast: Salma Hayek, Edward Norton, Antonio Banderas, Alfred Molina, Ashley Judd, etc.) and gives a thought-provoking, compelling look at the inspired life of Frida Kahlo, a Mexican painter who suffered terribly from polio as well as an extremely debilitating bus accident.
Quickly, a couple of things I learned (or didn't) from the film and/or the DVD extras: Kalhlo's work finally began to get the international recognition it derserves when - get this - Madonna started buying her paintings in the 80s. Kahlo had about 30 operations over the course of her lifetime to help relieve the constant pain caused her by the accident. (This figures to be nearly one operation every two years -- and probably even more frequently) Finally, the film glorifies her work and life but DOES NOT mention the fact that she probably committed suicide. The film, no surprise, let's her go out on a high note...
What follows are two biographies (cut-and-pasted) from websites. Links are provided. Also, I hope to add a few pictures here soon to flesh this entry out a bit more...
And finally, here are a few pictures also scrounged off the web:
***
http://www.getty.edu/artsednet/resources/Maps/Women/Kahlo/artist.html
Frida Kahlo
About the Artist
Frida Kahlo was born of European and Mexican descent in 1907 in the Mexico City suburb of Coyoacán, in the same blue stucco house where she died 47 years later.
She was exceptionally striking; her long dark hair and distinctive bird-wing brows arching over magnetic black eyes reflected her vibrant and adventurous nature.
In 1925, at the age of 18, she was in a bus accident that injured her spine, pelvis, and foot, injuries that led to many hospital stays, operations, and, ultimately, her death. In many ways, her art is a chronicle of her personal pain and strength in the face of endless medical problems. But her talent and spirit (or alegría) became the wellspring of her career.
Most of Kahlo's work—painted on canvas, wooden boards, and tin—depicts her personal story; perhaps most riveting are the artist's many self-portraits. In them, Kahlo often portrays herself in native Mexican dress, surrounded by her many pets and the lush vegetation of her homeland, her forehead or body imprinted with the people and events central to her life. Kahlo's paintings also have the strong silhouettes, insistent detail, overall equality of focus, and bold colors often associated with folk art. Always intense and sometimes realistic or fantastic, her works show that her art and life were inseparable, fierce, timeless, and tragic.
Kahlo loved everything Mexican—the country's saturated colors, folk art, and native dress as well as its commitment to faith and family.
Kahlo was also a dedicated Communist. When she married the famed muralist and social activist Diego Rivera, the couple became well known for their dedication to Mexico's populist causes and pride in their country's native culture. They shared this commitment to Mexicanidad with many artists and intellectuals of the first several decades of the twentieth century—a time known as the Mexican Renaissance. Their visibility attracted famous artists and political figures, many of whom became close friends. One of them as Leon Trotsky, the exiled Russian revolutionary leader, who lived in Kahlo's blue house as a political refugee.
***
http://www.lasmujeres.com/fridakahlo/life.shtml
Frida's Life
Biography
Frida Kahlo was a painter whose work fascinated prominent and diverse artists around the world. The wife of world-renowned Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, Kahlo forged a place in the art world that was completely of her own. Her dramatic work consisted primarily of self-portraits, although she did capture her family and friends on canvas on occasion. Some critics contend that Kahlo's paintings were reflections of her personal history, her relationship with Diego Rivera; her damaged physical condition, her philosophy of nature and life, and her individual and mythological worldview. Although Kahlo never had formal training in art, she developed into an artist who fascinated wide range of fellow artist, including Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein, painter Pablo Picasso, and novelist Andre Breton. In addition to these literary and artistic luminaries, her circle included political figures such as Leon Trotsky and the Rockefeller family.
Frida Kahlo lived between 1907 and 1954 in a time of incredible worldwide movements and changes. The Mexican Revolution occurred just three years after she was born, a development that triggered dramatic social and economic change in Mexico. A new sense of nationalism surged throughout Mexico as the people rejected dictator Porfirio Diaz and his policies, and a renaissance of cultural renewal glorifying Mexico's native roots took place. The Mexican muralist tradition grew out of these changes and proved to be an enduring method of expressing national pride. Kahlo was an active participant in the social, economic and political landscape that characterized that life. Frida Kahlo was born Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderon on July 6, 1907, in her parents' house in Coyoacan, Mexico a suburb of Mexico City.
In about 1935 she dropped the "e" in her first name. Her father one of Mexico's foremost photographers, was the son of Hungarian Jews from the German town of Baden-Baden who emigrated to Mexico. Guillermo Kahlo married her mother Matilde Calderon, a Mexican of Indian and Spanish ancestry. The family home, called the Casa Azul ("Blue House"), was built by Guillermo Kahlo a few years before Frida's birth. She was born, raised, lived and died in her family's home. Kahlo's father had a profound influence on her life. Her mother was a meticulous housekeeper and devout catholic whose conventional patterns of thought created some distance between her and her daughters. Kahlo's father, on the other hand, recognized and encouraged her intellectual independence and curiosity.
At the age of seven, Kahlo was afflicted with polio, a disease that left her right foot turned outward and stunted the growth of her entire right leg. Her father nursed her back to health and subsequently encouraged her to play various active sports not typical for a Mexican girl at that time. Kahlo's bout with polio held her back in school, so in 1922, when she entered the National preparatory School, she falsified her age. Some historians have speculated that she chose 1910 as her birth date to coincide with the year of the Mexican Revolution started. Kahlo was adamant in her commitment to ideals of revolution. She expressed her bond to the Mexican people in her art, in her dress, her behavior, and the decorations of her home. During her days at the National Preparatory School, Kahlo became known as something of a prankster and was a highly visible presence. She often wore elaborate indigenous jewelry and colorful native clothing, and was fond of piling her hair upon her head and decorating brightly with ribbons and bows in the fashion that the natives of Oaxaca, Mexico, favored Kahlo regarded every occasion as a cause for rejoicing, and celebrated birthdays, baptisms, and all the popular holidays with great enthusiasm.
It was at the National Preparatory School that she first met Diego Rivera, an artist whose work she admired. Her attraction to the painter was considerable, and one story from that period of her life alleged that she declared to her school friends her ambition to have a child by Diego Rivera. In 1925, however, Kahlo was involved in a tragic accident that dramatically changed her life. Traveling home from school on a bus, the vehicle collided with a trolley car, driving a piece of iron into her pelvis an back. Kahlo struggled with the effects of this accident and the pain it caused for the rest of her life. She underwent as many as 35 operations over the course of her life, most of them on her spine and her polio-deformed right foot.
Read/Post Comments (2)
Previous Entry :: Next Entry
Back to Top
