Frida Kahlo Visual Analysis

Frida Kahlo’s painting called Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird portrays negativity by having the symbols of bad luck around her. This artwork was created in 1940 after her divorce from her husband Diego Rivera also ending her affair with Nikolas Muray. This portrait can be found at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. This artworks main subject is Frida Kahlo in addition to the black animals the green fauna. This represents that she’s sure of herself, although her facial expression is bleak, and her shoulders are sullen, but her posture is very rigid, she is still the main subject of the painting. The way she’s looking into the viewer’s soul. Trying to convey that emotional feeling , sort of like
It feels as if it’s suffocating her being painted so big and so close to her. The color green is this portrait would be life, and it’s ultimately engulfing her, and even then the green isn’t a vibrant green but a dark green that might implicate dying. This must be how Frida is personally feeling, dealing with the situation she might’ve been in while she painted her self. Even as the picture progress from the bottom to top you see the that at the top there’s the sky and it might be what she was going to, trying to reach that state of liberation. Although she has two butterflies on top of her crown of hair they’re placed on top and not trapped like the black hummingbird is at the bottom. Which must be her freeing her mind and not her body, being trapped physically but be liberating mentally. In Frida’s art you can see the negativity and misfortune that is portrayed in this particular art piece. Although she is the main focus and looks rigid and has all these symbolisms of negativity and being trapped, and the color scheme all make this the perfect representation of what she’s trying to convey, her true self what she’s feeling when she paints herself, her sort of escapism she’s trying to reach in her