The Two Fridas Analysis

Born July 6th, 1907 in Coyoacan, Mexico into a family with three other siblings, Frida Kahlo’s main focus was not derived nor did it begin with painting. Kahlo began her career aspirations and life’s work with medicine, in which her objective or goal was to become a doctor. However, due to some serious life issues that would ultimately alter and eventually change the course of her livelihood, Kahlo adjusted and settled into an atmosphere in which her aspiration to paint came alive. With the use of bright colors, presentation and imagery with in her paintings, it is obvious that Mexican culture and personal life experiences are what drives and influences her artwork. Apparent traumatizing pain exists and is portrayed throughout her paintings.

Beginning with cool and warm tone coloring's the sense of emptiness is created through the use of grey, blue and white colors that make up the background sky. The use of red refers to blood that exemplifies the two bleeding hearts with their thread like veins in which the visualization of contrast against the blue and white in the clothing.is shown. Showcasing the focal point in this painting stems from the use of the color red which is displayed by the copious amounts of dripping blood from the open veins of the hearts. This solidifies the ability of the viewer to immediately conclude that the painting has significant meaning behind it and the use of colors may depict the anger, pain or anguish derived by experience. The use of tone in The Two Fridas is also a significant element in the work. Kahlo has used fine brushstrokes to illustrate gradual changes in light and dark

Symbolizing the pain Kahlo experienced during the divorce from her husband Rivera, as well as her transitioning into a second identity in which she fabricated consciously herself “The Two Fridas” exemplifies a strong empowerment of observational realism. The double painting shows Kahlo wearing modern European attire in which she wore prior to her marriage to Rivera, on the right and donning a traditional Mexican costume on the left; which symbolizes her newly founded double or split identity. The background of the painting illustrates obscure, dark and depressed meaning and expresses symbolically fundamental Catholicism through the stormy sky as it references and depicts Kahlo’s bleeding heart. It also is symbolic to the ritual sacrifices of the Aztec’s. Symbolic elements frequently possess multiple layers of meaning in Kahlo's pictures; the recurrent theme of blood represents both metaphysical and physical suffering, gesturing also to the artist's ambivalent attitude toward accepted notions of womanhood and fertility (Zurakhinsky). While sitting down on a chair next to her split identity, Kahlo portrays both the two Frida’s facing headfirst. Thus showing representations of and extracted heart along with a pair of scissors in her hand with blood dripping down her dress; which depicts the justification of her current mental