Topic 4 - Henry Ford Hospital by Frida Kahlo, 1932

Kahlo was a…

female Mexican artist born in 1907, died in 1954, lived most of her life in pain e.g. polio

what happened to her at 18?

she was caught in a horrific bus accident which broke many of her bones, with an iron handrail piercing her belly and womb

she was told she was never going to be able to…

carry children

her husband was…

Diego Riverat

he pregnancy ended in…

misscarriage

the painting is done in a deliberately …. style

naive

the work showed influence of the…

Surrealists

in the work she explores what…

it means to her as a woman not being able to be a mother

she mixes…

reality, fantasy and supernatural elements

the work is juxtaposed by the mechanisation of the…

Ford factory with the organic human tragedy taking place in its hospital

she shows herself during…

the time at which she haemorrhages alone in a hospital bed

her nakedness reinforces her…

vulnerability and also the idea of impersonal clinical medical procedures

Kahlo herself had started studying…

medicine before she decided to become an artist - her medical knowledge is referenced here by the medical models and instruments

the use of oil on metal support was traditional in….

Mexican religious art

what are the symbols shown?

• foetus

• medical model of female reproductive organs

• clinical impersonality of medical instruments such as a surgeon’s table

• pelvis rendered useless

• Ford factory in the background highlighting her distance from home

• snail representative of slow horror of losing a child

the whole piece questions what is left…

of a woman when the ability to create new life is taken away

not for the pleasure of the…

male gaze

Kahlo frequently used motifs in regards to Mexico and religion to reflect….

her strong anti-colonial sentiments and interest in Mexicanidad - a romantic Mexican nationalism closely associated with anti-imperialism and revolutionary politics (joining the Communist Party in 1927)

this was the first painting she made that was painted on metal in the tradition of Mexican…

‘retablos’ or votive offerings

Retablos were…

small-scale works done by amateurs, associated with Catholicism and intended to show both the medical condition / illness affecting the person, and the saint to which the image was dedicated (usually gifted to thank the overcoming of a condition)

Kahlo subverts the tradition of Retablos by….

showing only the horror of what she has just been through

Diego Rivera states she “tore open her…

chest and heart to reveal the biological truth of her feelings”

mainly influenced by…

Renaissance art and Avant Garde movements like Surrealism to convey often pain-filled visions of the world

much of her work revolved around…

self-portraits, playing out a tortured conversation with herself by broaching the most painful and intimate topics