Frida Kahlo's life began and ended in Mexico City, in her home known as the Blue House. She gave her birthdate as July 7, 1907, but her birth certificate shows July 6, 1907. This highly recognized and admired feminist artist made suffering the vehicle for her artistic conception. She portrayed herself in situations that do not obviously reveal illness, but for the observer this state is pretty evident. The self-portrait was the instrument she chose for the artistic realization of her innermost being. As she herself said, she painted herself, over and over again, because she was so often alone and had to paint while lying in bed, or in a wheel chair, because she could not leave the house. In this way, she created the story of her life in pictures. Ever since art was discussed and analized, it has been dominated by men. Men have painted, made music, written. Until the twentieth century, the few women who managed to accomplish something, did not change art history. They worked within the pattern of the world, the principle of which was arranged by men. The beginning of the twentieth century brought change. Female artists begin to reflect on their situation and become more active in the public eye. There were plenty of female artists before Frida Kahlo. But the reason Frida Kahlo was the first woman fully accepted and acknowledged by the art world is because she was fundamentally different. She was different in that she did not originally intend to pursue an artistic career. She simply made art that expressed her emotions - her suffering. She visualized feelings, emotions, not in competition with the man, but in a dialogue with herself. She was the first woman who made the effect in the art world just by her effort, without the help of a man. She went her own way, far from contemporary history and contemporary trends, and placed herself on the most dangerous path, that of the loner. She followed this path unconditionally, free from the desire for approval from others. Frida Kahlo was a turning point in history of independent woman art. She was a common evolutionary ancestor that have risen to the radiation of all kinds of artistic feminist themes. She gave background for the complete female emancipation and wild creativity for the women art of the modern era. (Billiter, 1993) |
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