Frida Kahlo, The Two Frida's, 1939

There's a prevailing concept in art history that for meaningful work to exist the artist has to suffer a great deal and the process of obsessing and reliving trauma through the act of creation is what separates "authentic" artists from supposed pretenders. Frida Kahlo's cultural memory is rooted in trauma despite that in her practice she always enjoyed the spectacle of herself. The Two Frida's is a seminal work in Kahlo's career displaying a core theme of conflicting inner dialogue. Using aspects of her body as a means of exploring larger themes of separation by class, sex, and cultural heritage Kahlo draws broader importance to the self-portrait as an act of rebellion. Contrasting the double portraits, you examine the rift between societal expectation vs an unmalleable need to maintain tradition, through the change in clothing style and supporting objects depicted such as the scissors and miniature portrait. Frida herself, ignoring symbols is reflected identically on both sides. The self-portrait doesn't have to be representative in a literal sense and I feel it can be much more interesting when interpreted figuratively. In this case, Frida isn't as important to this piece as the costume she's adorned herself in, representing her feelings about being a pawn constantly stuck in the process of appealing to learned authority figures that dictated expression in the art world and beyond. I admire Kahlo's dedication to portraiture as a theme, my experience in constructing my own self-portraits is always one of self-scrutiny as I not only consider my physicalness but the masks I wear whether they were forced or adopted and how I interpret my interactions with the world through them. (Week 2)