The Two Fridas
Painted in 1939 by Frida Kahlo (b. 1907 - d. 1954)
Oil on canvas
Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, Mexico
ABOUT THIS EPISODE:
In the episode, we focus on Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, and her 1939 work entitled Las Dos Fridas, or The Two Fridas. Frida Kahlo is credited with placing Mexican art on the international stage. She began painting as a teenager after a devastating automobile accident. Frida was a self taught artist best known for her prolific self portraits. Frida explored duality in her multiculturalism, sexuality, politics, ideals and expression of gender. Her autobiographical perspective and the abundant symbolism in her work give us intimate access into the heart of this revolutionary artist.
This episode features Liz Lidgett Gallery artist Fares Micue. Ten Minute Masterpieces is hosted by art advisor Liz Lidgett and produced by Maribeth Romslo.
FULL SHOW NOTES:
https://www.lizlidgett.com/ten-minute-masterpiece-the-two-fridas
The Two Fridas
Painted in 1939 by Frida Kahlo (b. 1907 - d. 1954)
Oil on canvas
Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, Mexico
ABOUT THIS EPISODE:
In the episode, we focus on Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, and her 1939 work entitled Las Dos Fridas, or The Two Fridas. Frida Kahlo is credited with placing Mexican art on the international stage. She began painting as a teenager after a devastating automobile accident. Frida was a self taught artist best known for her prolific self portraits. Frida explored duality in her multiculturalism, sexuality, politics, ideals and expression of gender. Her autobiographical perspective and the abundant symbolism in her work give us intimate access into the heart of this revolutionary artist.
This episode features Liz Lidgett Gallery artist Fares Micue. Ten Minute Masterpieces is hosted by art advisor Liz Lidgett and produced by Maribeth Romslo.
FULL SHOW NOTES:
https://www.lizlidgett.com/ten-minute-masterpiece-the-two-fridas
Liz Lidgett 0:01
Welcome back to Ten Minute Masterpieces where we explore curious stories behind the world's most renowned works of art. I'm Liz Lidgett. I'm an art advisor and gallery owner in Des Moines, Iowa.
Liz Lidgett 0:13
In our last two episodes, we learned about perhaps the most recognizable woman ever portrayed in art, the Mona Lisa. Today we turn our attention to another iconic woman in the art world – Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, and her 1939 oil on canvas entitled Las Dos Fridas or The Two Fridas.
Liz Lidgett 0:36
Frida Kahlo is credited with placing Mexican art on the international stage. She began painting as a teenager after a devastating automobile accident. Frida was a self taught artist best known for her prolific self portraits. Her autobiographical perspective and the abundant symbolism in her work give us intimate access into the heart of this revolutionary artist.
Liz Lidgett 0:59
A specific theme from Frida's life and art that is seen clearly in The Two Fridas is the idea of duality, or having two parts, often with opposite meanings. Love and hate, black and white, up and down, fantasy and reality. These are all dualities. In a way one can't exist without the other, like two sides of a coin. From an early age, Frida explored duality in her multiculturalism, sexuality, politics, ideals and expression of gender.
Liz Lidgett 1:32
The Two Fridas is a large-scale double self portrait, where the artist depicts two versions of herself seated side by side on a wicker bench. The two Fridas hold hands. The Frida on the left wears a white dress with delicate lace and European style embroidery. The Frida on the right wears a blue, yellow and green traditional indigenous dress from the Mexican matriarchal society of the Tehuanas. Many art historians believe that The Two Fridas represents Frida's dual heritage and multiculturalism. Her mother was born in Oaxaca, Mexico and was of indigenous and Spanish descent. Frida's father was a German Jew who immigrated to Mexico when he was eighteen. Both Fritos in the painting are depicted with exposed hearts connected by a red rope like arteries. The Frida dressed in white on the left has a torn open heart with a blood vessel that extends down to her hand, which holds surgical scissors that cut open the descending artery splattering blood onto her delicate lace dress. The Frida dressed in blue on the right has another blood vessel winding down her arm to her hand, which holds a miniature oval portrait of her Mexican muralist husband Diego Rivera.
Liz Lidgett 2:42
The marriage of Frida and Diego was filled with passion, pain, love, betrayal, revolution, and above all, art. They were an unlikely pair. Twenty years her senior, Diego was a hefty man who at six-foot-one towered over Frida's five-foot-three slight stature. When they married in 1929, her parents called them the elephant and the dove.
Liz Lidgett 3:05
Even though Frida was a rising artistic star, with her mystical paintings of piercing introspection, she was lesser known in her lifetime than Diego, the older and celebrated master of Mexican frescoes. His murals gave a voice to indigenous workers seeking equality after centuries of oppression. Frida and Diego were deeply involved in controversial political movements together from communism to Mexican nationalism, with some socialism sprinkled in there too.
Liz Lidgett 3:31
Their relationship was complex. Again a study and duality, a push pull between passion and fidelity. Frida was openly bisexual. Rumors romantically linked her with artists Georgia O'Keeffe and jazz icon Josephine Baker, who was part of the French military intelligence working against Hitler. Frida also had an affair with exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky, who led the Red Army in toppling the Russian Tsar establishing the world's first socialist state. Diego had numerous affairs as well, including one with Frida's sister, which led to the couple's divorce in 1939, the same year that Kahlo painted The Two Fridas. Frida and Diego remarried less than a year later. And despite their volatile relationship and subsequent affairs, they continued their lives together until Frida's death in 1954, at the age of 47.
Liz Lidgett 4:22
Frida's life and work represent rebellion against conformity and radical honesty about pain and suffering. She experienced various medical conditions and traumas throughout her life. Frida was born with spina bifida, and contracted polio as a young child. In a diary entry, Kahlo said that The Two Fridas grew from a memory of an imaginary friend from when she was six years old. The year polio confined her to bed. The virus deformed Frida's right leg, making it shorter than her left. When she was 18 years old, Frida survived a devastating street car crash which profoundly changed her life. The accident broke her spinal column, collarbone, ribs and pelvis. She suffered 11 fractures in her already weakened leg. Her foot was crushed and her left shoulder was left permanently out of joint. Again, she was confined to bed. During this time, she asked her father for his box of oil paints. A special easel was created so she could paint lying down. This is when her life as an artist began.
Liz Lidgett 5:26
Lingering pain in her right foot, leg and back followed Frida her whole life. During the 29 years between her accident and her death, Frida had 32 operations. And in 1953, her leg was amputated. Frida wrote in her diary, "Anguish and pain, pleasure and death are no more than a process". In The Two Fridas, the sky in the background is filled with ominous dark storm clouds. Yet at the same time, there is hope in The Two Fridas. In these two versions of herself, Frida sits tall, facing us with a powerful unflinching gaze. She holds her own hand as if to say, "Even when times are hard, I am my own best companion, my strongest partner and my most loyal friend".
Liz Lidgett 6:14
Here to talk about The Two Fridas is one of the artists we represent at Liz Lidget Gallery. Fares Micue is a self-portrait photographer based in Spain. Her work is dramatic, bold and colorful. There's depth and mystery in her photographs. She also puts curious objects in her self portraits like paper cranes and exotic flowers.
Liz Lidgett 6:33
Fares, I am so excited to have you on as my friend as an artist for the gallery. So we're talking about today, The Two Fridas. What I would love to hear from your point of view is, what you see when you look at this piece?
Fares Micue 6:48
This painting was created after her divorce with the husband. So it really represents how the divorce ripped her heart apart. And we can see that she's holding a picture, like an image of Diego Rivera that is in the hand, that is the husband so we can see the traditional Frida, in the other part, is already cut off. So the portrait of the husband is gone. But it's still bleeding, even if she's trying to suppress the bleeding. So that means you still have feelings for him. So although she's trying to stop the bleeding, and she cannot do it, and each one supports the other, that's why they are holding hands. So I think it's an absolutely beautiful image that we need to see through everything to definitely get the depth of this amazing painting.
Liz Lidgett 7:42
Talk to me about what it is as an artist to put yourself as the actual object and the piece.
Fares Micue 7:50
You know, at the beginning, it's weird, kind of, but it feels natural. So many times for people who do self portraits for example, like me, you know, when you start to do something, you are not confident enough. So you want to go to somebody and tell them you know, I'm practicing photography, maybe you would like to be my subject. So you're kind of afraid. So you just go ahead and say okay, I can do it myself. And then for example, for me, too, it became like trying to share a personal story. So what is more personal than just showing myself?
Fares Micue 8:26
I would love to be like Frida, definitely, because she was a free spirit, I think. She wasn't afraid to show who she was. So I think that is very important as an artist, that you are able to put yourself in your world, you are not afraid to show every single aspect of yourself, even if it's good or bad. So that is what I loved the most about Frida and her work, that she didn't try to hide behind any kind of mask and didn't want to conform with what people were expecting from her. She just was living her truth. And I think that is the best thing that an artist can do. When you create from your heart from your pure feelings. That's the most important thing as an artist to be honest with your work.
Liz Lidgett 9:21
Frida lived as an outspoken and flamboyant artist. She flouted conformity and lived life on her terms. Frida celebrated her features – her upper lip hair and her striking unibrow became fashion statements that denounce conventions about beauty and social expectations. She once said, "I am my own muse, the subject I know best, the subject I want to know better".
Liz Lidgett 9:45
For me, The Two Fridas embodies so much about what makes Frida Kahlo's life and art so captivating. She uniquely painted her way through grief, tragedy and loss. Maybe more than her art, Frida herself has become a worldwide media phenomenon. She is an icon of feminism and radical acceptance of self.
Liz Lidgett 10:05
Frida inspires me in how she gave voice to the voiceless, including the disabled, indigenous and queer communities and women everywhere by simply saying, "Here I am. This is me".
Liz Lidgett 10:17
Frida was sort of an OG selfie artist. And her confidence in her non-conformity was and still is radical. She made many people uncomfortable with her politics, as well as how she cracked open her pain and suffering onto her canvases. In every sense, Frida lived out an idea that I love -- that art can be a revolution.
Liz Lidgett 10:39
I'll leave you with these powerful words from Frida's diary, "I used to think I was the strangest person in the world. But then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same way as I do. I hope that if you are out there and read this, you know that yes, it's true. I'm here, and I'm just as strange as you".
Liz Lidgett 11:05
Ten Minute Masterpieces is a production of Liz Lidgett Gallery and is produced by Maribeth Romslo. Special thanks to Fares Micue. Check out our show notes for credits to this episode and links to more info about Frida Kahlo and her self-portraits. Hayden Herrera's book Frida Kahlo: The Paintings is an excellent deep dive into the context and symbolism woven into Frida's body of work. Join us next time when we take a look at Monet's Water Lilies. Until then, I hope you take ten minutes and look at some art today. You might just discover your favorite masterpiece.