HUMN 303N Week 2 Assignment: Essay – Painting Analysis & Reflection – Henry Ford Hospital

Artistic Movement The artwork I chose to discuss is Henry Ford Hospital by Frida Kahlo completed in 1932. Growing up Frida Kahlo had a much more difficult childhood than kids her age at the time. A t six years old she suffered from Polio and was bed-bound for many months. With having polio, along came some consequences. This disease led to her right leg growing thinner than the left and left her walking with built-up shoes and a limp (Demonte, 2016). When she was 18 years old, she was taking the bus when she was in an accident and a steel handrail went through her. Since this accident, she was told she would never be able to have children. Style of the artist At the time this work was completed, females creating art was rare. It was mostly males who created art. Frida’s artwork remained unknown until a few years after she passed away when historians rediscovered her art. Since then, women have come together to create art just like Frida. She was an artist that created self-portraits. Her self-portraits each represented a moment in her life. Most of her work was based on women and the changes they experience. A few of her art represent pregnancy, breastfeeding, and miscarriages. She created artworks of these topics because back in the day these weren’t common topics and women struggled to share their stories. This way women will feel more comfortable. The way she illustrated these works was through surrealism. It makes it seem like you’re inside the women’s body and you understand the thoughts and feelings through the difficult time. Stylistic Influence I believe the stylistic influence was her husband Diego Rivera. Frida once said, “They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn’t. I never painted dreams. I painted my reality” (Gelman, 2016). Surrealism is often described as artists who use images to illustrate dreams and unconscious thoughts. In this particular painting, you can see the detail and the pelvis area where the accident affected her. Political Influence Political Influence for Frida I would say was the Mexican Revolutionary War. Kahlo would often tell others that she was born in the year of 1910 so that she could be related to the revolution. The war was one of her inspirations for a painting she had done. It was an artwork of herself at the border. In this painting, Kahlo is holding a Mexican flag representing her culture and who she is. Reflection Since starting this class, it is safe to say that I have learned and appreciated art more than ever. It is very interesting to me how one painting can have numerous meanings and the way we perceive it is also different. I believe understanding the context of the art helps interpret it because it gives us a reason as to why the artist painted this work and sort of the inspiration behind it. After learning about Frida Kahlo, I was able to understand the meanings of her work and the connection to women’s daily struggles. It’s truly inspiring to me how Kahlo was able to sort of put her life on display. She was able to illustrate her thoughts and experiences through her paintings and the tragedies of her life; something a lot of women were afraid to do at the time. Because of these kinds of paintings from her other women were able to relate to and discuss these unfortunate topics. Kahlo suffered three miscarriages, but none of them affected her like the one she had while accompanying her husband in Detroit (Vass, 2016). With this particular painting, you can see her lying in bed while bleeding, this illustrates her experiencing a miscarriage. The feelings in this work represent how she felt during the miscarriage. The six objects in the air each represent a part of the process. I chose this artwork because as a female I know how hard it can be to talk about the topics that Kahlo had painted. It’s inspiring how she was able to connect with other women around the world. References Demonte, N. (2016, June). A Medical Autobiography of Frida Kahlo. In Body Talk: whose language?. Gelman. (2016). Lines of connection. Home :: Art Gallery NSW.