Painted in 1939 at the time of her divorce with famous muralist Diego Rivera, The Two Fridas is said to be one of the products of the mixed emotions evoked by Mexican nonconformist artist Frida Kahlo during her 47 years of painful living. Frida Kahlo lived in a society which allowed her to aspire to be a listening wife and ideal mother. She used her weak points, her realizations in life, to gather more strength, stand up from every fall and produce one of the most valuable, feminist paintings I have ever seen.
After the Mexican Revolution, Mexico stood up for its highly patriarchal system of society, wherein women were viewed inferior to man. They were forced to take the role of subservience, other than the acceptance of being role models to their sons. Respect was less of a concern to deal with since mothers were only able to earn it from their sons, indicating that there narrow possibility of achieving respect when it comes to single women. Other than that, Catholic dominance shaped Mexican culture therefore imposing the ban on abortions, the use of birth control pills and the filings of annulment. This somehow filled up a portion of Frida’s vessel of dreams. But to such distress, fate became an obstacle to her from getting this kind of life.
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| Frida Kahlo by Diego Rivera |
However, the life-changing experience was yet to happen. While riding on their way home, their bus was struck by an uncontrollable speeding vehicle. She suffered a lot of injuries, such as broken collarbone and ribs, a fractured and crushed right foot, eleven fractures on her right leg, a dislocated shoulder, a destructed spine (artistically presented in her The Broken Column), and the most severe, a broken pelvis when a pole pierced through her body, shattering her pelvis, and out of her vagina losing her virginity. Alejandro never came back after visiting her once in the hospital. It was as if he began to doubt of his love when he saw her physical stature and bore the fact of lost virginity.
Upon near recovery, she began pursuing away from medicine and intended to take the arts. At the age of 20, she fell in love with 40-year old muralist Diego Rivera, an acquaintance she had captivated way back school days. Hoping to satisfy her aspiration to be a perfect wife but no longer into being a mother, she married Diego in 1929. However, Diego’s manhood didn’t stop him from getting what he wanted, and so he flirted behind Frida’s back. Her faulty relationship with Diego, the continuous painstaking corrections in her body, and the saddening fact of not bearing a child, led her to take a shift of outlook in life.
She sparked her likeness in politics, and retained her membership in the Communist Party. Later, she arranged financial independency with her husband Dieg, remarrying one another once more. This anew personality is described in the painting’s right Frida, the strong-looking one. After an amputation of her right leg due to an infection she still insisted to join a Communist rally, granting her no immunity to pneumonia with a weak, deteriorating body. On the 13th of July 1954, she had her last breath.
Looking through this context, we can arrive at two different characters as portrayed in her work. The traditional Frida (left), with an intention to hide the bruise of her past life experiences, wears a tattered and blood-stained Mexican dress with her broken heart seen. This may indicate a person’s response when she is trapped in a life designated according to her status of living (cultural background, economic position). The traditional Frida is the reflection of a person held out by the life she was expected to live. As soon as she realized the need to adjust, she reinvents herself in a more positive way, unearthing in her the strong Frida at the right side.
Just like tabula rasa, one empty-minded person acquires knowledge from experience and perception in life. Frida’s response to the circumstances of failure lead to the ongoing strength of her evolved character, the right Frida – the epitome of strong will and determination in spite of hindrances which came along the way. She is the embodiment of the person who wisely decides for herself whom she wants to be, and not live accordingly with the influx of society’s culture and traditions.
In her artwork, we can see many symbols just waiting to be unveiled by the reader. One is the clouded-sky background, showing no penetration of sunlight through it, which denotes the dark agonizing past she had wherein she was able to cope with the stress of the feeling that she carried the world all by herself – a reason why some say that she painted two different personalities in order to forget the loneliness she felt. The artery connecting both Fridas and the holding of hands may signify the connection between the socially relying human and the independent fighting one – a strategy used by Kahlo to escape from reality and heal internally. Traditional Frida’s exposed, shattered heart may represent her longing – the bleeding love, which is still shared by both Fridas through the linking artery. The surgical scissors/pincers stop the blood from dripping out, which may indicate that she still knows her passions (love, career and family). It may also mean her craving to bear a child, which did not happen during her lifetime all blamed to an accident.
The stain of blood in her white dress may convey the physical aspects of pain, reminding her of the unwanted incident of miscarriages, of abortions, of surgeries, of her life. The small pendant, displaying a miniature picture of Diego, is connected to her by a cord. In her other works like 1949 The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Me, Diego and Mr. Xolotl, which may show that Diego wasn’t just her lover, but also, her son as well.
Color was used to provide distinction between the two Fridas. Historical context helped in unveiling the semiotics lying within the artwork. The premises of art were all inscribed in a circle of real-life experiences, stating that this artwork is the outcome of the feelings evoked by an unfortunate woman who only dreamed of becoming a wonderful person in her lifetime – which she later achieved on her death. Frida Kahlo herself is considered by many as a symbol of strong will, headship and rough individuality.
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