Self Portrait with Cropped Hair, 1940
Self Portrait with Cropped Hair, 1940
Frida Kahlo
Oil on Canvas, 389.4 x 27.5cm
Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gift of Edgar Kaufmann, Jr
Frida Kahlo (1907-54) is perhaps one of the most well known Mexican female artists. Her life has been immortalised in the film Frida that focused on her stormy relationship with her husband Diego Rivera, an accomplished Muralist and her legendary bus accident, and her artwork.
Kahlo was born 6th July 1907, Coyoacan, Mexico City. Her father was of Hungarian Jewish background while her mother was of Spanish and Mexican Indian descent. In 1922 she entered the medical program of the National preparatory School but was not able to finish due to an severe accident. On September 17th, 1925, she was involved in a severe bus accident with light rail. She was pierced with broken handrail through her pelvis (she was to have 32 surgical operations through out her life). Kahlo took up painting during her convalescences.
The subject of Kahlo’s works is often herself. They speak of both emotional and psychical pain. Influences in her work include surrealism, her startling combination of realistic and bizarre symbolic elements led the Surrealist writer Andre Bretton to describe her work as a ‘ribbon around a time bomb’2] Her work also draws from her Mexican heritage, in particular many of her self portraits were influenced by the popular retablo artform, a painting which usually pays homage to a holy person or saint. She often painted herself in Mexican costume, with bright colours.
Her work Self Portrait with Cropped Hair 1940 is a departure from Kahlo’s portraits, which portray her with embellished hairstyles and Mexican costumes and bright colours. The work was inspired by Frida’s act of cutting her own hair. She cut her hair a month after her divorce to Diego Rivera (whom she was to remarry a year later).
In this painting Frida is dressed in mans suit (presumably Rivera’s). She is sitting in what could be described as a ‘male’ posture with her legs open and she holds a pair of scissors close to her genitals. She is surrounded by strands of her own hair, which give the impression that they are almost floating around her. This adds to a dream like quality in the work. ‘Lyrics and notes of a popular song are displayed across the top; Look, if I used to love you, it was because of your hair, now that your pelona, I don’t love you anymore.’ ‘Pelona’ meaning bold. The scissors and the cutting of hair may suggest her cutting away of vulnerability, of D.Rivera in her life.
The colours in this work are subdued compared to earlier portraits, the only reference to femininity are her earrings, and suggest a rejection of femininity. Hair had special significance in Kahlo’s life. In 1940 after her divorce from Rivera, she painted herself with cropped hair. In the following year, reunited with Diego she painted two portraits, (one of which 1941 self portrait with braid) in which she wears elaborate hairstyles .[3]
Endnotes:
Mira Martic
[2] Self Portrait 28/4/05
[3] Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Mexican Modernism, The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection, Anthony White, National Gallery of Australia, 2001 p.28
Posted by susansteggall on Sun, 26 Jun 2005 22:49
Permalink
-
Category Issue 34/Close Ups/
- 0 Comments
- 0 Trackbacks