Written by | Rong Mengyan
"I don't want to influence others. I have no intention of becoming famous and starting a family. I have achieved nothing, and I am ashamed of the gift of life. In the fall of 1950, Frida Kahlo said in a series of interviews with Olga Costas. By the time Frida uttered these words, however, she had already painted all of her iconic paintings. Time magazine once summed up Frida's art as "an autobiography of painful ordeal painted with brushes and paints." "A seemingly simple summary, but it really tells the life of Frida legend.
contradiction
Frida was a contradictory person.
Frida's work is complex and profound, and one can always find "many Fridas" in her work. Even in her life story, there are always many versions, as if she had already begun to write her autobiography according to her own wishes.
At 8:30 a.m. on July 6, 1907, Frida was born. Frida's father is a 36-year-old photographer from Baden-Baden, Germany, and her mother, Mathilde Calderon, is a 30-year-old "unemployed" woman from Mexico. There is no doubt that Frida is a completely mixed-race child, and "mixed-race" has become an important component of her identity. Throughout her life, Frida further elucidated the diverse, multicultural origins of her lineage, both verbally and figuratively.
Although her birth certificate clearly stated that Frida was born in 1907, she changed her birthday to 1910 on several occasions in documents, interviews and even in her diaries. This may also have something to do with her identification with "Mexican" ancestry, as frida believes she was a child who grew up in the 10 years of the Revolution, in the chaos, violence and bloodshed of the streets of Mexico, when the Revolutionary War broke out in Mexico in 1910. She believed, or rather, wanted herself to be born with modern-day Mexico.
In addition, Frida always chose to celebrate her birthday on July 7 instead of July 6 on her birth certificate.
As Frida herself put it: "I'm happy to be a contradictory person." ”
Trauma and creation
At the age of 6, polio left Frida with one leg thick and one leg thin. As the deformed limbs were infected with tumors, ulcers, and eventually gangrene, Frida's condition continued to deteriorate until 1953, when Frida had her right leg amputated below the knee.
Because of her deformed limbs, Frida had to face ridicule from her classmates, and endured physical pain while also enduring psychological torture.
With her father's encouragement and support, Frida, in order to get rid of "the emotional dilemma of being ridiculed for becoming different from others", she transformed disability into a characteristic that defined her identity, becoming a dazzling and unique existence. Still, Frida is trying to undo her image flaws caused by her disability. As a child, Frida covered up her overly thin leg by "wearing several pairs of socks." As an adult, he chose to wear a long shirt to cover up his shortcomings.
After learning to face the plight of polio properly, Frida suffered another huge shock in her life - a car accident that made her almost "crushed to pieces".
On September 17, 1925, Frida's bus collided with a tram, her spine was broken into three pieces, her cervical vertebrae were broken, her right leg was severely fractured, one foot was crushed, and a metal armrest penetrated her abdomen. The accident left her infertile and spent her life in the company of unforgettable pain. Years later, her boyfriend still shudders in recall: "The violent collision tore her clothes apart." Someone in the car was carrying a bag of gold powder... The gold powder sprinkled all over her bloody body. "For a whole month, she was covered in plaster casts, lying in a coffin-like box where no one would believe she would survive.
In 1926, in the process of recovering from illness, Frida painted the first self-portrait and gave it to her boyfriend at the time, but the relationship still ended in a breakup, but since then Frida began to record herself and her life and emotions with paintings, and the theme of her creation was mostly self-portraits. Frida said: "Because I am always alone, I make self-portraits; because I know myself best, I make self-portraits." ”
Lost
Loss of affection and love at the same time.
When she received a telegram from her sister Mathilde informing her mother of her serious illness, Frida was also hospitalized and had a delicate relationship with her husband Rivera.
Before getting married, Rivera had told Frida that he had a bad problem and was prone to having relationships with other women, which was no way, and the doctors said that it was because of his body, but he was willing to try and remain loyal to Frida. However, Rivera still failed to keep his promise. It is said that while in New York, Rivera cheated on Louise Nevelson, and Frida felt betrayed and was furious. Meanwhile, she had an affair with Nicolas Mullay, a Hungarian-American photographer and fencer, and tried to reconnect with Georgia O'Keefe.
In addition, after Frida and Rivera arrived in Detroit, Rivera was desperate to stay in the United States, while Frida was eager to return to Mexico. Rivera accused Frida of indulging in homesickness and being too idealistic about Mexico.
In December 1933, the two returned to Mexico, but Rivera remained sullen and blamed Frida for everything he had suffered since his return to Mexico. Soon after, Rivera and Frida's sister Christina began a secret affair. The double betrayal destroyed Frida, which she called a "double sadness", the most immediate result of which was that in 1934, Frida did not paint a single painting.
The sudden death of her mother and the double betrayal of her husband and sister made Frida realize that she was on her own. But throughout her life, Frida was not self-sufficient and remained financially dependent on Rivera. "I can't get anywhere, Frida wrote in a letter to her husband.
However, for this world, Frida is not only not accomplished nothing, her self-portrait even praises Picasso.
Complicated family relationships and multiple physical traumas allowed Frida to develop a style of painting with black humor. Many people think she is a surrealist painter, but she insists on denying it, considering herself a feminist painter. In 1954, at the age of 47, Frida left this world, leaving behind more than 150 art treasures, becoming the most popular modern female painter in Mexico.
Frida has become a female version of Che Guevara, upgraded from a symbol of Mexico and the Americas to a worldwide spiritual symbol. In Pixar's Dream Quest, the one-eyed lady is The embodiment of Frida.
*Some of the images are from Visual China, Oriental IC; reference "Legendary Life: The Biography of Frida Kahlo".
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