The Two Fridas, 1939Frida Kahlo, Mexican
My First Impression:
It seems to be one of her very famous self-portraits except in this one there are two of her. One's heart seems to be destroyed while the other's is perfectly healthy. Perhaps the healthier Frida is helping the ill one. Kahlo uses value a few times in this picture but it is also very colorful. The background has the biggest representation of value and it shows the dark sky and clouds. It makes me think that the mood is somber and sad. She also uses value to show the shadows and the creases on the clothes.
What I've Learned:
When Frida painted this she had moved back with Diego Rivera in San Fransisco where she got treatment and rest for her poor health and recovered quickly. The year later, Rivera and Kahlo remarried. Frida underwent 30 surgeries in her lifetime as a survivor of polio, and a serious bus accident which seriously injured her in more ways than one. Kahlo explains that she was very lonely as a child due to her polio so she created a make-believe friend of whom she told her deepest secrets to. Some think that in this painting, she recreated her friend as a twin of herself. Of the 200 odd paintings that Kahlo created, about 50 are self portraits.
Sources:
http://www.fbuch.com/fridaby.htm
http://www.fridakahlofans.com/biobrief.html
http://www.pbs.org/weta/fridakahlo/worksofart/index.html
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