Frida Kahlo's Broken Column

Introduction
There are few artists whose artistic style is as distinctive or easily recognizable as that of the renowned Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (1907-1954). Kahlo had an extraordinarily prolific artistic career, producing an insurmountable amount of self-portraits that manage to blend somewhat simplistic compositions and techniques with complex subjects and emotional themes. Much of Kahlo’s work has often been categorized as being surrealist in nature. But while her work may exhibit fantastical, dream-like elements, it also depicts subject matter that is very personal and emotionally grounded. If one considers that artwork can function as a reflection of the artist who created it, the work of Frida Kahlo offers a fascinating and symbolic
This piece features a teary-eyed Kahlo in the center of the foreground the composition, wearing a flowing white skirt and a corset of white straps that wrap around her shoulders and upper body. Kahlo’s breasts are exposed and the front of her upper body is bisected, revealing that “her spinal column is replaced by a broken Doric column.” In addition, several nails protrude from the skin on her face, arms, torso, and legs. In the background, a blue sky with white clouds hangs over the cracked, fissured landscape where Frida stands. Unlike The Two Fridas, this piece does not portray a full-bodied Frida, but rather depicts her from the waist up. Additionally, she is positioned within the very center of the canvas, causing her to take up much of the frame and become the main focal point of the
Unlike the former painting, however, Without Hope positions Frida within the lower third of the frame, with only her head and shoulders being visible. Rather than portraying her power or strength in the wake of her pain, this piece depicts Frida in a seemingly weaker fashion. What little we see of her form is dominated by the large, macabre funnel through which she is being forcefed. The theme of this piece is best described by Frida herself, “who added the following explanation on the backside of the picture: “Not the least hope remains to me… Everything moves in time with what the belly contains.’” The image of the funnel and its contents are representations of Kahlo’s recovery process following the aforementioned surgery. Frida’s lack of appetite following the operation caused her to grow unhealthily thin, and as a result, she was prescribed a fattening diet. This diet was in the form of puréed food that doctors forced her to eat every two hours. Her disgust of this force feeding is portrayed by the animal viscera that overflows from the funnel. She is made to feel diminutive and powerless by her treatment. This rendering of Frida has submitted to her pain, and this submission is further accented by the barren, dry landscape behind her. “The faults and fissions of the land symbolize the violence done to her body.” In this self-portrait, the viewer