Frida Kahlo's Love Embrace Of The Universe
Frida’s Reality by Alfonso Gonzalez Montesinos
Based on Frida Kahlo’s “Love Embrace of the Universe”
Frida Kahlo, the now renowned Mexican artist whose artistic expression, in my opinion, is as clear as her tragic life if one digs deep enough. A woman born during a period of political chaos in her country, a rebellious and injured soul who saw and lived life according to her own rules during a period in history in which women had no voice. As I stare into her eyes, I try to search and place myself inside her art to better understand what I see and listen to her voice through her images.
Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderon was born in 1907 in Coyoacan, at that time, a small city in the outskirts of Mexico City. Her father was a German immigrant and her mother of Spanish/Mexican descent. Kahlo grew up during the civil unrest of the Mexican Revolution, which began in 1910 and lasted almost a decade. The Mexican Revolution began from the belief …show more content…
that wealthy landowners should not continue the ways of the Spanish colonial rule by exploiting the less fortunate. That lifestyle should be replaced by one in which those who worked the land should benefit from their labor. Later in life, Frida Kahlo would lie and say she was born in 1910, the year the fight for the “new” Mexico had begun. Finding herself in the middle of the ‘re-birth” of the identity of a nation certainly shaped many of her views, filling her art with revolutionary ideas and indigenous themes with harsh contrasts.
Health wise, Kahlo had multiple complications.
She contracted polio at age six and suffered an extremely serious accident at age eighteen, which ultimately crippled her for the rest of her life and brought her countless relapses of pain, requiring more than 35 surgeries. The accident also left Frida unable to bear children, at a time where that was the main purpose of women. It is well known that many of her frustrations find their roots in this tragic accident and the impact it had on her life.
As I look and learn about Frida Kahlo’s factual universe, I gaze at “Love Embrace of the Universe” and can’t help the feeling of not only observing, but being able to listen and sense what this embrace is supporting and the universe that surrounds it. It seems more like a daydream than a painting, the world as we know it uprooted in the hands of a mysterious celestial figure. The shocking color contrast, and the mystifying lost gazes of the pictured figures. They are all pieces of a whole, and the whole is an intense
contrast.
Frida was part of two opposing worlds and realities at once. At the height of her career, she was invited to art exhibitions in glamorous cities such as New York, and was a pop culture icon even featured in a Vogue fashion spread. Although this fame and sophistication seems like a dream, I don’t think Frida felt this way. I believe this new world she was propelled into made Frida uncomfortable and made her feel out of place, with her indigenous clothing and unmistakable eyebrows. This can be appreciated in her painting with the contrast between the sun and the moon. I think the Aztec goddess Cihuacoatl, who is embracing the couple is a metaphor of a security blanket for Frida. She was clearly more submerged in her indigenous Mexican culture which she felt not only protected by, but also protective of in a time where these indigenous roots were what people tried to hide or suppress.
Cihuacoatl was the Aztec goddess of birth which could clearly explain why a tree is sprouting from her, implying that the power to give life is something marvelous but also natural. Frida, however, did not have the ability to give birth and that was one of her prime anxieties. Possibly the birth goddess surrounds her and her husband as a method to express her frustration since she couldn’t be a mother, perhaps thinking her gods prevented her from having a child since her maternal role would occur with Diego. On the left side of the painting you can appreciate a small dog, representative of the Aztec god Xolotl. Xolotl was the Aztec god believed to guard the underworld, but also the god of deformities. I believe Frida incorporated him in a motionless, resting position to represent her left leg. Between her early contraction of polio and her accident, Frida’s left leg was frail and much smaller than her right. No matter what she did, Frida’s deformity was always going to be present. The outermost figure embracing everything is the Aztec Universal Mother. I am convinced Frida made her features blend into the sky to speak her mind to the world. I feel that with this aspect of the piece Kahlo is blatantly stating that, although it may seem she has two separate lives, her reality and the life she chooses to live is embracing her culture and her roots, as this is the only world she belongs to and is loved in.
Frida sitting, wearing one of her typical regional dresses, a reminder of those indigenous Aztec roots she holds on to; roots that many deny or feel ashamed of. She is carrying a baby, her own husband, who Frida referred to as “my child, my lover, my universe”. She seemed to have not only a marital relationship with Diego Rivera, but also a maternal one. Rivera, her husband, was a famous Mexican artist, part of the Muralist Movement, which began at the end of the Revolution and lasted into the 1970’s. Many muralist painters were political activists as well as internationally recognized artists who used the walls of public buildings to tell the story of the revolution and of the struggle of the people. Their marriage was tumultuous to say the least, they both had multiple affairs, not to mention the fact that they divorced and remarried a year later. When Frida first met Diego, she was unknown and just beginning to establish herself as an artist. Rivera, on the other hand, was already an established painter whom Frida revered and admired. Frida respected Diego as an artist, many even believe he overshadowed her. I am certain this is the reason Frida included the third eye of wisdom on her husband’s face. She believed Diego was more intelligent than she was, and that’s what made their relationship harmonious and balanced. Frida was a wife and a mother, while Diego was a husband and a mentor.
Frida, the human being who endured the misfortune of physical pain, suffering, and frustration throughout her life. Frida, the warrior who stood for her own beliefs, who chose to live the life she was given under her own rules. Frida, the woman who in a way gave herself entirely to the man she loved. Frida, an enigma in the eyes of many. The contrast between the moon and the sun. The contrast between the world she lived in and her own world. Frida Kahlo, the artist who embraced the fragments of her universe and her distorted reality to reflect them in her artwork. Frida Kahlo, the author of “Love Embrace of the Universe” found love within her own universe, her reality.
Based on Frida Kahlo’s “Love Embrace of the Universe”
Frida Kahlo, the now renowned Mexican artist whose artistic expression, in my opinion, is as clear as her tragic life if one digs deep enough. A woman born during a period of political chaos in her country, a rebellious and injured soul who saw and lived life according to her own rules during a period in history in which women had no voice. As I stare into her eyes, I try to search and place myself inside her art to better understand what I see and listen to her voice through her images.
Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderon was born in 1907 in Coyoacan, at that time, a small city in the outskirts of Mexico City. Her father was a German immigrant and her mother of Spanish/Mexican descent. Kahlo grew up during the civil unrest of the Mexican Revolution, which began in 1910 and lasted almost a decade. The Mexican Revolution began from the belief …show more content…
that wealthy landowners should not continue the ways of the Spanish colonial rule by exploiting the less fortunate. That lifestyle should be replaced by one in which those who worked the land should benefit from their labor. Later in life, Frida Kahlo would lie and say she was born in 1910, the year the fight for the “new” Mexico had begun. Finding herself in the middle of the ‘re-birth” of the identity of a nation certainly shaped many of her views, filling her art with revolutionary ideas and indigenous themes with harsh contrasts.
Health wise, Kahlo had multiple complications.
She contracted polio at age six and suffered an extremely serious accident at age eighteen, which ultimately crippled her for the rest of her life and brought her countless relapses of pain, requiring more than 35 surgeries. The accident also left Frida unable to bear children, at a time where that was the main purpose of women. It is well known that many of her frustrations find their roots in this tragic accident and the impact it had on her life.
As I look and learn about Frida Kahlo’s factual universe, I gaze at “Love Embrace of the Universe” and can’t help the feeling of not only observing, but being able to listen and sense what this embrace is supporting and the universe that surrounds it. It seems more like a daydream than a painting, the world as we know it uprooted in the hands of a mysterious celestial figure. The shocking color contrast, and the mystifying lost gazes of the pictured figures. They are all pieces of a whole, and the whole is an intense
contrast.
Frida was part of two opposing worlds and realities at once. At the height of her career, she was invited to art exhibitions in glamorous cities such as New York, and was a pop culture icon even featured in a Vogue fashion spread. Although this fame and sophistication seems like a dream, I don’t think Frida felt this way. I believe this new world she was propelled into made Frida uncomfortable and made her feel out of place, with her indigenous clothing and unmistakable eyebrows. This can be appreciated in her painting with the contrast between the sun and the moon. I think the Aztec goddess Cihuacoatl, who is embracing the couple is a metaphor of a security blanket for Frida. She was clearly more submerged in her indigenous Mexican culture which she felt not only protected by, but also protective of in a time where these indigenous roots were what people tried to hide or suppress.
Cihuacoatl was the Aztec goddess of birth which could clearly explain why a tree is sprouting from her, implying that the power to give life is something marvelous but also natural. Frida, however, did not have the ability to give birth and that was one of her prime anxieties. Possibly the birth goddess surrounds her and her husband as a method to express her frustration since she couldn’t be a mother, perhaps thinking her gods prevented her from having a child since her maternal role would occur with Diego. On the left side of the painting you can appreciate a small dog, representative of the Aztec god Xolotl. Xolotl was the Aztec god believed to guard the underworld, but also the god of deformities. I believe Frida incorporated him in a motionless, resting position to represent her left leg. Between her early contraction of polio and her accident, Frida’s left leg was frail and much smaller than her right. No matter what she did, Frida’s deformity was always going to be present. The outermost figure embracing everything is the Aztec Universal Mother. I am convinced Frida made her features blend into the sky to speak her mind to the world. I feel that with this aspect of the piece Kahlo is blatantly stating that, although it may seem she has two separate lives, her reality and the life she chooses to live is embracing her culture and her roots, as this is the only world she belongs to and is loved in.
Frida sitting, wearing one of her typical regional dresses, a reminder of those indigenous Aztec roots she holds on to; roots that many deny or feel ashamed of. She is carrying a baby, her own husband, who Frida referred to as “my child, my lover, my universe”. She seemed to have not only a marital relationship with Diego Rivera, but also a maternal one. Rivera, her husband, was a famous Mexican artist, part of the Muralist Movement, which began at the end of the Revolution and lasted into the 1970’s. Many muralist painters were political activists as well as internationally recognized artists who used the walls of public buildings to tell the story of the revolution and of the struggle of the people. Their marriage was tumultuous to say the least, they both had multiple affairs, not to mention the fact that they divorced and remarried a year later. When Frida first met Diego, she was unknown and just beginning to establish herself as an artist. Rivera, on the other hand, was already an established painter whom Frida revered and admired. Frida respected Diego as an artist, many even believe he overshadowed her. I am certain this is the reason Frida included the third eye of wisdom on her husband’s face. She believed Diego was more intelligent than she was, and that’s what made their relationship harmonious and balanced. Frida was a wife and a mother, while Diego was a husband and a mentor.
Frida, the human being who endured the misfortune of physical pain, suffering, and frustration throughout her life. Frida, the warrior who stood for her own beliefs, who chose to live the life she was given under her own rules. Frida, the woman who in a way gave herself entirely to the man she loved. Frida, an enigma in the eyes of many. The contrast between the moon and the sun. The contrast between the world she lived in and her own world. Frida Kahlo, the artist who embraced the fragments of her universe and her distorted reality to reflect them in her artwork. Frida Kahlo, the author of “Love Embrace of the Universe” found love within her own universe, her reality.