Frida's art style is mostly surrealism, however i have found a difference between her and other surrealist movement artists. Where most artists, who are looking to make a strange surrealist painting, look for inspiration in dreams or ideas, Frida uses events of her life. Such as being hospitalized for months after contracting polio when she was only nine years old. In her painting, The Broken Column, she made a self portrait of herself in some sort of brace holding her body together, she is split open form her chin to her belly button revealing a crumbling greek style column representing her spine. She also painted nails and needles sticking into her body and face representing the pain she went through during her rehabilitation. Although the painting was much like other surrealist works artists have done, it is interesting that her paintings aren't just bizarre but also symbolize parts of her life and have a much deeper meaning.
Now when I try to analyze her paintings, instead of just tying her to the surrealist art movement and her as a Mexican artist, I look at her life and what was going on around her that may have influenced her art, things like the rise of communism in the 1930's greatly influenced her life and art. Also her background, having a German father and Mexican mother influenced her as a person especially in the 1940's. Looking at the new information I have gathered about her life I now have a much better understanding and a much different perspective of her art and that has changed the entire focus of my paper.
Joey! Woohoo! You finally posted on here! I found this post extremely interesting. Art is something that is usually always interesting to look at, as it leaves the viewer with a message and room for the viewers own interpretation. What makes art even better is knowing the artist and their story. It always makes for greater understanding of the work and a more solid understanding. I'm really glad you enjoy learning about ya girl Frida. This sounds like an extremely entertaining individual to research!
ReplyDeleteI know you love Frida and her work so hopefully you'll be able to get this paper done!! The blog post was well written, but had a few grammatical errors so make sure to look out for those when writing the final paper. Are you going to discuss in your paper how Frida's choice to depict her life in her work may inspire you with your work? Either way, I think it will be very informative and will finally show the class that you do have the skills and knowledge to get through this class when you put forth the effort!
ReplyDeleteI think it is really cool how you looked deeper into her life to figure out the meanings behind her work. Do you think the tragic events in Frida's life pushed her to become an artist? Do you think it was some sort of escape to her? It sounds like this has peaked your interest in your topic. I am excited to see how your paper turns out!
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