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Frida Kahlo Research Paper

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The Work and its Historical/Cultural Context Frida Kahlo was a very talented Mexican artist that revolutionized art at a very young age. Her work is still idolized and celebrated today and is studied by many artists, institutes of higher education, museums, and fans. Kahlo was born in the town of Coyoacan, Mexico on July the sixth in the year of 1907 (Kettenmann 3). She made around 143 paintings, and out of those 143 paintings, 55 were self-portraits that included symbolism of her physical and emotion pain. Furthermore, in her portraits she used symbolism to express her wounds and sexuality. She use to say: “I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality” (Fuentes 41). Her paintings style include of vibrant colors and was heavily influenced …show more content…

The monkey in the Mexican mythology, it is a symbol of lust and pervasion, but she didn’t use it like that. Instead, she used it to symbolize protection and tenderness. When she was merely eleven she was diagnosed with polio, resulting in the crippling of her right leg leaving it a bit shorter and thinner than the left leg. Considering she was a survivor of polio she originally wanted to attend pre-med school, becoming an artist was nothing she ever planned to do. Frida simply became an artist by default when she was 18 due to a freak accident that left her immobilized for long periods of time. Unfortunately many surgeries followed and she began painting more and more to keep herself busy while she couldn’t move around much. At the age of 18 Frida had already experienced a great deal of pain in life and challenging health issues. Frida is known for painting an abundance of self-portraits which wasn’t the norm at that time. Frida was before her time in many ways making her exceptionally different from other women, she enjoyed telling dirty jokes, smoking, and slamming down tequila. This was intriguing to many and she was often questioned as to why she did this. Frida was so comfortable in doing so because she spent so much time alone, in

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