Artist 2
Frida Kahlo
Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird
Frida was a Mexican artist who painted many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Inspired by the country's popular culture, her style explored questions of identity, postcolonialism, gender, class, and race in Mexican society. Her paintings often had strong autobiographical elements and mixed realism with fantasy. She was disabled by polio as a child. Then suffered a traffic accident at the age eighteen which caused lifelong pain and medical problems. This turn of events led her back to painting before she was heading to become a doctor.
One of my personal reasons for admiring her is she expressed her pain and frustration in her art. Her paintings often featured root imagery with roots growing out of her body to tie her to the ground, reflecting in a positive sense the theme of personal growth; in a negative sense of being trapped in a particular place, time and situation. Her use of body was at times a metaphor to explore questions on societal roles and comprehending how to deal with them.
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