Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait on the Borderline between Mexico and the United States, 1932

Self-Portrait on the Borderline reflects Frida Kahlo’s time living where?

In the United States

What languages did Frida Kahlo speak?

Spanish, English and German

Frida Kahlo’s childhood household prized what?

education and the fine arts

When was Frida Kahlo born?

In 1907, in Mexico City

What was Kahlo’s mother’s heritage?

she was descended from Indigenous peoples and spanish settlers

What was Kahlo’s father’s heritage?

He was descended from a German Jewish family

Kahlo’s early life coincided with what major world event?

The Mexican Revolution of 1910

What were the goals of the 1910 Mexican Revolution?

To abolish racist systems of land ownership, provide legal protections for workers, and establish right for the Indigenous population

When was a new constitution drafted to address people’s problems?

In 1917, though the war continued into 1920

What ideas did Kahlo explore in her paintings?

Mestizaje and indigenismo

What is Mestizaje?

The experience of being a mixed-race person.

What is indigenismo?

Mexican interest in Indigenous life and hertage

Where was Kahlo studying when she first joined a radical group to support the revolution?

Mexico’s National Preparatory School

Who stated that they wanted to paint “something useful” to the “revolutionary movement?”

Frida Kahlo

Kahlo’s political potential was often buried under what, in her art?

Layers of dreamlike imagery and personal symbolism

How old was Kahlo when she got into the accident that disabled her?

She was 18 years old

What disease did Kahlo survive when she was younger?

She survived Polio

When she was 18, what accident did Kahlo get into?

A city bus she was riding got struck by a trolley.

Kahlo’s accident left damage to which parts of her body?

Her spine, pelvis and right leg

How Kahlo represent her body after he accident?

As fragile and vulnerable

Some biographers suggest that what caused Kahlo to start painting?

Her long period of recovery after he accident

Who taught Frida Kahlo how to paint?

No one, she was self taught

What were Kahlo’s paintings inspired by?

Aztec and Olmec culture, paintings by indigenous peoples who were taught the European religious art style, Mexican Folk art, and the works of fellow avant-garde painters

Kahlo’s legacy has made an impact of what?

Art, fashion and pop culture

What has masked the serious nature of Kahlo’s work and her investigation into complex Mexican and Pan-American identities?

Her unconventional beauty and flair for fashionable ensembles

Using her artwork, Kahlo launched investigation into which complex identities?

Mexican and Pan-American identities

Which Mexican city was an important site of artistic innovation after the Mexican revolution?

Mexico City

American and European artists, photographers, and writes came to Mexico to be inspired by what?

The revival of interest in Pre-Columbian histories

Which painters came to Mexico to be inspired by a revival of pre-Columbian histories?

Painters: Josef Albers and Marsden Hartley

Which photographers came to Mexico to be inspired by a revival of pre-Columbian histories?

Photographers: Edward Weston, Tina Modotti, and Robert Capa

Which writers came to Mexico to be inspired by a revival of pre-Columbian histories?

British writer D.H. Lawrence and Andre Breton

Who was the French founder of of Surrealism?

Andre Breton

What led to a major reorientation of Mexican art in the 1920s and 1930s?

Artists combining visual styles from European modernism with influences from Mexico’s deep past

The “big three” led which Mexican art style?

Mexican Muralism

Who were the “big three” that led Mexican Muralism?

Jose Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Diego Rivera

Who was Frida Kahlo’s husband?

Diego Rivera

Who photographed Kahlo standing next to an Agave Plant in 1937?

Toni Frissell

What was Mexican Muralism?

An art style that featured large-scale wall paintings that stressed Indigenous heritage and narratives as part of a new history in postrevolutionary Mexico

Compared to Mexican Muralism, what was Frida Kahlo’s art style?

She painted small, intimate images, often on tin

Why did Kahlo paint mostly on tin?

To echo Mexican and Mexican American traditions of painting on scrap or recycled metal to produce retablos

What are retablos?

Small religious images or altar pieces made for personal or household devotion

What are the dimensions of Self-Portrait on the Borderline?

12 by 14 inches

In Self-Portrait on the Borderline what does the landscape on the left represent?

Mexico

In Self-Portrait on the Borderline what does the landscape on the right represent?

The USA (Michigan)

What dress does Kahlo typically wear in her paintings?

The Indigenous Tehuana dress

How does Kahlo depict herself as a 20th century woman in In Self-Portrait on the Borderline?

She wears a modern pink party dress and smokes a cigarette

How does In Self-Portrait on the Borderline differ from Kahlo’s other works?

In her other works, Kahlo depicts herself as divided, but in In Self-Portrait on the Borderline, it is the landscape that is split

In Self-Portrait on the Borderline what do the crumbling Aztec temple and Olmec ceramic figures symbolize?

They represent the Mexican Past

In Self-Portrait on the Borderline what do the colorful flowers with deep roots on the left symbolize?

The revival of ancient traditions made possible by celebration of indigenous histories

Which deities over see the Aztec pyramid?

The sun and moon deities

In Self-Portrait on the Borderline, smokestacks spell out what word in capital letters?

FORD

In Self-Portrait on the Borderline, instead of roots, power cords snake down into the ground from which appliances?

A fan, motor and lamp

In Self-Portrait on the Borderline, Kahlo hold the flag of which country in her hand?

The flag of mexico

In Self-Portrait on the Borderline the smokestacks billow steam that materializes into which flag?

The American flag

How long was Kahlo married to Diego Rivera?

24 years

What was Kahlo’s relationship with Diego like?

It was marked by constant Diego’s constant infidelity. (They divorced in 1939 and remained each other in 1940)

In the early 1930s, how long did Kahlo and Diego spend living abroad?

2 years

Where in the U.S. did Kahlo and Rivera live?

San Francisco, New York, and Detroit

Where was Self-Portrait on the Borderline painted?

In Detroit

Which other work mentioned in the resource was inspired by Frida Kahlo’s time in the U.S.?

My Dress Hangs There (1933)

Henry Ford hired Diego Rivera to paint a series of Murals where?

In the Detroit Institute of Arts

Diego Rivera’s murals at the Detroit Institute of Arts were called what?

Detroit Industry (1932-1933)

What do the Detroit Industry murals depict?

Automotive production mixed with pre-Colombian deities

What message do the Detroit Industry murals convey?

The suggestion of a hopeful synthesis between ancient cultures and modern industrialization

How did Kahlo feel while staying in Michingan?

Stressed and culturally isolated

What did Kahlo do to stress the fact that she was traveling on her husband’s business and not her own?

She signed Self-Portrait on the Borderline with the name “Carmen Rivera.”

Who wrote that when Kahlo returned from the U.S., she was more “Passionate than ever to promote “Mexicanidad”?

Lucy Harvard

How does Self-Portrait on the Borderline present a complex picture of shared histories?

The roots of Mexico’s flowers and the cords of America’s appliances intertwine, suggesting a symbiotic relationship

When the border between the U.S. and Mexico was fixed in the 19th century (1800s), many Mexicans were left stranded where?

In Texas, New Mexico, California, and Arizona

In Self-Portrait on the Borderline, Kahlo destabilizes the idea of a border, just like which artist?

Juane Quick-to-See Smith in State Names

What did Kahlo suffer while she was in Detroit?

A devastating miscarriage and the death of her mother

Which of Kahlo’s works represents the miscarriage she suffered in Michigan?

Henry Ford Hospital (1932)