Frida Kahlo’s 6 Disability Themed Paintings
Wednesday, July 06, 2022
Disability Rights Florida Blog
Many are aware of the legendary artist Frida Kahlo: her famous artwork, her impact on culture, her activism, and her iconic appearance. But many people do not know that she was a disabled woman, with known physical disabilities due to polio and a terrible automobile accident.
In honor of her birthday today, July 6th, and Disability Pride month, let’s give space to this incredible disabled artist, and talk a bit about how her experience with disability shows in her art.
Photo credit: MoMA.org
Background on Frida Kahlo’s life
Frida Kahlo, a Mexican bisexual woman of color with disabilities, lived from 1907 to 1954. In 1913, when she was around 6 years old, Kahlo contracted polio, which at the time didn’t have treatments and left her with physical disabilities. The virus did damage to her right leg and foot. In the 1920’s she went to a preparatory school where she was an outspoken and strong student. By 15, she could read and speak three languages. In 1925, she was seriously injured in a traffic accident, where she broke and/or dislocated her spine, ribs, shoulder, and pelvis, and she was wounded badly. Between her polio and this injury, she experienced mobility difficulties and severe chronic pain throughout the rest of her life. While and after recovering from the accident, she began to paint more. In 1929, she married famous painter Diego Rivera. Each of them had affairs with other people while married, but Kahlo had relationships with people of all genders. For the next few years, the couple lived in the United States, before moving back to Mexico in 1933. Kahlo and Rivera wanted to and tried to have children, but due to Frida's injuries they were unable. She continued to experience pain in her right leg and foot, and, ultimately, she had multiple toes amputated. In 1935, the couple separated, and Kahlo moved to New York where she began art and exhibiting her work. In the following decade, Kahlo continued to gain popularity for her art. In the late 1940s and 1950s, her health declined and she had many surgeries. She got a prosthetic leg and became a wheelchair user. Despite her medical issues, she continued to paint, attended exhibitions of her work, and increased in fame. In June of 1954, Frida Kahlo passed away, leaving behind a legacy and collection of artwork narrating her life and experiences for generations to come. Now that we have some insight into her life, let's talk a bit about her art.
Kahlo and her art
Kahlo primarily did oil paintings that depicted her reality, and her perception of that reality was a bit strange and magical. One writer and poet, André Breton, tried to classify her as a surrealist painter. Kahlo rejected this idea and label and famously stated, "they thought I was a surrealist, but I was not. I never painted dreams, I painted my reality." Her paintings and style are now considered to reflect ‘magic realism’, a term introduced in 1925. Not only are the technique and style of her art important to her works, but also her perspective and motivation for her art.
Despite Kahlo’s legendary artworks, most people, including art enthusiasts, don’t know about her disability and how her disability impacted her art. However, her experiences with her various disabilities, chronic pain, and medical trauma informs the stories behind her famous paintings.
For example, if you hadn’t known Kahlo was often in bed, isolated, recovering from surgeries and navigating her chronic pain, you may think she just did a lot of self-portraits because she was good at them. She was an incredible self-portraitist, but she painted so many self-portraits because she was often alone, and she knew herself as a painting subject better than any other option.
If you hadn’t known about Kahlo’s disabled identity, you may not have known that a large amount of her paintings were done sitting or lying down. She had a custom easel that she could use while lying in bed so she could still paint.
Themes of disability within Kahlo’s art
It is because of her experience with disability that she created some of the masterpieces we know well today. The following paintings have the most clear and straightforward references to Kahlo’s disability, medical trauma, and chronic pain. However, many of her paintings beyond the examples listed below reference her disability identity. The imagery of her paintings is fairly dark, as Kahlo experienced intense chronic pain and received intense and consistent medical care. All images and painting descriptions are courtesy of http://www.FridaKahlo.org. You can see the artwork in better resolution and detail by clicking on the name of each piece below the photo. The link will take you to FridaKahlo.org.
Tree of Hope, Remain Strong, 1946
Information/Painting Description: In this painting, under the gloomy sky, the sun and moon divides the background into two halves of light and dark. In the middle, Frida is sitting there and weeping in a red Tehuana costume. Nevertheless, she seems strong and confident. Behind her on a hospital trolley lies a second Frida who is anesthetized, her surgical incisions still open and dripping with blood. Frida is holding a pink orthopedic corset while sitting in the wooden chair. On her other hand, she is holding a flag that has words from the song ""Cielito Lindo" - "Tree of Hope, Remain Strong."
On the flagpole, there is a red tip that looks like a surgical instrument stained with blood, or a paintbrush dipped in red paint. The barren landscape behind her has two fissures which is metaphor of the wounds on her back. Frida painted this painting for her patron Eduardo Morillo Safa. In a letter to him, Frida mentioned: "There is a skeleton (or death) that flees in the face of my will to live." But she later removed the skeleton to please Eduardo. But she cannot eliminate the menace of death. In this portrait, by putting two Frida's images together, one is a victim of the botched tragedy, the other is the heroic survivor, Frida used it as a retablo and an act of faith. Frida takes charge of her destiny and becomes her own saver and hero.
Information/Painting Description: In this painting, The Broken Column, Frida expressed her anguish and suffering in the most straightforward and horrifying way. The nails are stuck into her face and whole body. A split in her torso looks like an earthquake fissure. In the background is the earth with dark ravines. In the beginning she paints herself nude but later cover her lower body with something that looks like a hospital sheet. A broken column is put in place of her spine. The column appears to be on the verge of collapsing into rubble. Penetrating from loins to chin, the column looks phallic, and the sexual connotation is all the more obvious because of the beauty of Frida's breasts and torso.
This painting Frida looks pretty and strong. Although her whole body is supported by the corset, she is conveying a message of spiritual triumph. She has tears on her face but she looks straight ahead and is challenging both herself and her audience to face her situation.
Information/Painting Description: In this painting, Frida used a young deer with the head of herself and was fatally wounded by a bunch of arrows. The background is the forest with dead trees and broken branches, which implied the feeling of fear and desperation. Far away is the stormy, lightning-lit sky which brings some hope, but the deer will never be able to reach it.
In 1946 Frida Kahlo had an operation on her spine in New York. She hoped she would be freed from the severe back pain she experienced, but the surgery failed. This painting expressed her disappointment towards the operation. After she went back to Mexico, she suffered both physical pain and emotional depression. In this painting she depicted herself as a young stag with her own head crowned with antlers. This young stag is pierced by arrows and bleeding. At the lower-left corner, the artist wrote down the word "Carma", which means "destiny" or "fate". Just like her other self-portraits, in this painting Frida expressed the sadness that she cannot change her own fate.
Self-Portrait with the Portrait of Doctor Farill, 1951
Information/Painting Description: This painting is Frida's last signed self-portrait. In this portrait, she painted herself with her surgeon Doctor Juan Farill.
Dr. Farill performed 7 surgeries on Frida's spine in 1951. She had to stay in the hospital in Mexico City for 9 months. In November of 1951, she finally recovered and was able to paint again. The first painting she painted was this self-portrait and she dedicated this painting to Dr. Farill. She wrote in her diary: "I was sick for a year.... seven operations on my spine. Dr. Farill saved me."
At that time Frida Kahlo was suffered from a lack of appetite due to her many surgeries and numerous illnesses. She became very thin and malnourished. Her doctor, Dr Eloesser, prescribed her complete bed rest and a forced fattening diet of puréed food every two hours.
Information/Painting Description: In this painting, Frida Kahlo, depicts what she went through with the "forced feeding" diet. The disgusting food with animals and skulls was held by the wooden structure which used to hold her canvases for painting. It seems her arms are pinned underneath and cannot help with the situation. The background is a deserted Mexican landscape showing both the sun and the moon. The situation seems to be Without Hope.
Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, 1940
Information/Painting Description: In this portrait, Frida Kahlo faces the viewer with a background of large green leaves and a yellow leaf right behind her. The thorns are around her neck like a necklace which is held by a black monkey. Her neck is bleeding from the piercing thorns. On the right side behind her shoulder is a black cat. A hummingbird is hanging on the thorn which knots around her throat. Her expression is calm and solemn. It also seems she is patiently enduring the pain.
Frida Kahlo put so many symbolic creatures in this painting. She was not painting a realistic scene but using these symbolic elements to express her feelings. A bird often symbolizes freedom and life. Especially a hummingbird which is colorful and always hovering above flowers. But in this painting, the hummingbird is black and lifeless. This might be a symbol of Frida herself. Frida spent most of her life in physical pain after the bus accident happened when she was eighteen. After that, she endured about thirty-five operations to fix her body. She spent so many years bedridden and cannot bear any children. This is a painting about her suffering.
Disability Pride Month is an important time to shed light on stories often untold. We hope by sharing this information, Frida Kahlo’s full story and identity as a disabled, bisexual, Mexican, woman of color, and talented artist will be told. Her identities and experiences shaped the way she painted, how she painted, why she painted, and what she painted. To continue to view Kahlo in a vacuum, without honoring her marginalized identities, limits our understanding and appreciation for her work.
To learn more about her and her many works, visit www.FridaKahlo.org.
References and where you can learn more:
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