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Clip and save art notes. ABOUT THIS SELF-PORTRAIT This picture is one of 200 self-portraits painted by Frida Kahlo Frida Kahlo[1](July 6, 1907 – July 13, 1954) was a Mexican painter, who has achieved great international popularity. She painted using vibrant colors in a style that was influenced by indigenous cultures of Mexico as well as European influences that include .It was said that in spite of painting so many pictures of herself, noneof them is alike. This double portrait is extremely different from mostof them, however, in that it shows her twice in one canvas. Like most of Frida Kahlo's paintings, this one has a verypersonal message to it that is wrapped up in the kind of dream ideaoften chosen by surrealist painters. The portrait on the left shows heras person that grew up with family that had European ideas. The portraiton the right shows her dressed in Mexican Indian costume in the way thather artist husband, Diego Rivera, preferred to see her. As a result ofthis conflict between the two cultures, she was often unsure which oneof them she really belonged to. Frida Kahlo dramatized this feeling of being divided betweencultures: the European and the Mexican Mayan. The European tradition inMexico was dominated by the Roman Catholic religion, while the Mayan wasdriven by the worship of death. By giving the two figures in thispainting a single heart that has been split into two halves, theuncertainty she experienced is made visible. Each half of the heartdrains away the blood of the other half. The self-portrait on the left tries to stop this flow of blood fromthe two halves of her heart with a clamp like those used by Westernsurgeons. While the two figures are sitting very still and the facesshow no expression, the violent cloudy background helps viewersappreciate the deep turbulent feelings lying beneath the surface thathave caused her personal conflict. Added to this, of course, are theaffects of her near-death experiences from childhood polio polio:see poliomyelitis. and a latercatastrophic traffic accident. ABOUT THIS ARTIST Frida Kahlo was born in Mexico City Mexico CitySpanish Ciudad de MéxicoCity (pop., 2000: city, 8,605,239; 2003 metro. area est., 18,660,000), capital of Mexico. Located at an elevation of 7,350 ft (2,240 m), it is officially coterminous with the Federal District, which occupies 571 sq mi to a middle-class family. Herfather's family had Come recently from Europe and was a mix ofHungarian, German and Jewish, while her mother's family was amixture of Spanish and Indian and had been in the country for centuries. Her father was a professional photographer who also enjoyedpainting in his spare time. Thanks to her father, Frida learned toappreciate literature and science, which led at age 14 to her beingadmitted to the National Preparatory School preparatory school:see school. preparatory schoolSchool that prepares students for entrance to a higher school. In Europe, where secondary education has been selective, preparatory schools have been those that catered to pupils wishing to enter in Mexico City, where shebelonged to a group of students that enjoyed literature and philosophy.She was among the first Mexican women to prepare for a universityeducation. On graduation, her plan was then to train to be a doctor. While at the Preparatory School, Frida met the artist Diego Rivera,who was then painting murals on the walls of the Preparatory School.Rivera was 21 years older than Kahlo, but she nevertheless got to knowhim and from then on was one of his greatest admirers. Unfortunately, bad health was a continual problem for Frida. At age6 she contracted polio which left her right leg crippled. Later, at 18,she suffered severe injuries when two street cars collided. For sometime it was not clear whether she would live, because her spine had beenbroken in three places and her right foot was crushed. And, even afterthree months in hospital, she remained in great pain, which continuedfor the rest of her life. These injuries ended her hopes of becoming adoctor. It was during her recovery at home from the street car accidentthat Frida first began to paint. This resulted in her making a number ofself-portraits. Although she had never had any art instruction, sheasked Diego Rivera to look at her paintings and he encouraged her tocontinue. Rivera also encouraged Frida to dress in Indian clothes, whichshe did--and continued to do so for the rest of her life. In 1929, when she was 22, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo weremarried. Frida's father approved of the marriage and attended theceremony but her mother did not. As a result of the marriage, Fridainstantly became the wife of a celebrity who also happened to be verycontroversial. She traveled with him to San Francisco San Francisco(săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden where he painted amural muralPainting applied to and made integral with the surface of a wall or ceiling. Its roots can be found in the universal desire that led prehistoric peoples to create cave paintings—the desire to decorate their surroundings and express their ideas and beliefs. at the Stock Exchange and also met many Californian artists. Later, in 1931, they went to New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of where Rivera's paintingswere exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art. It was at this time thatFrida began painting with great seriousness and won considerable successwith her unique vision. The marriage with Rivera did not last and in1935 they were divorced, which further released Frida's creativepowers. The attraction between Kahlo and Rivera was too powerful,however, and later they remarried. Most of her paintings were self-portraits showing her with a fixed,expressionless face staring out at viewers. She often showed herselfwearing necklaces of large beads and elaborate hair styles like thoseworn by Mexican Indian women. She became particularly well known for herportraits with monkeys and other exotic animals. By 1939, Frida was exhibiting her own work in New York and Parisbut the start of World War II prevented the Paris exhibit from being asuccess. The following year, she exhibited her paintings at theInternational Surrealism surrealism(sərē`əlĭzəm), literary and art movement influenced by Freudianism and dedicated to the expression of imagination as revealed in dreams, free of the conscious control of reason and free of convention. Exhibition in Mexico City. By 1945 herreputation had grown so that she had been appointed a professor ofpainting at the Ministry of Education School of Painting. Because of herpoor health, she held classes at her home where she treated her studentsmore as friends than as students. Throughout all of this time, Frida was in constant pain as a resultof her injuries from the street car accident and had to wear a metalcorset corset,article of dress designed to support or modify the figure. Greek and Roman women sometimes wrapped broad bands about the body. In the Middle Ages a short, close-fitting, laced outer bodice or waist was worn. By the 16th cent. to help keep her spine in place. Eventually, her healthdeteriorated and she died at the early age of 47.