Frida Kahlo

by Sheila Mincey

Learning Objectives:In this PowerPoint you will learn facts about the art and life of Frida Kahlo, the famous Mexican artist. You will also view six of her paintings.

Directions:Read through each slide and enjoy the life and art of Frida Kahlo. Answer the Quiz Questions, and then you may Exit.

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Frida was born in 1907 in Mexico and died at the young age of 47. She had wanted be be a doctor, but experienced a horrible accident at age 18 that robbed her of this goal.

Pain was a great part of Frida’s life, not only from having polio as a child, but also from the fact that she was horribly hurt in the streetcar accident at 18.

Frida’s pride in Mexico is shown here not only in the tropical look of the painting, but in the pre-Columbian art of her necklace.

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In the accident many of Frida’s bones were broken including eleven breaks to the right leg, but even more terrible, she was impaled by an

iron bar which pierced her uterus and made it impossible for her to have children.

Frida used different symbols for her physical and emotional pain including hearts as seen here in this painting.

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She experienced over thirty surgeries in her lifetime and begain to paint during her initial recovery from the accident.

As her own style solidified, she incorporated many symbols of her pain and heartbreak into her paintings. She did many many self-portraits, over 50 in more than 200 works of art.

Asked why she so often painted herself, her response was that she was ‘so often alone, because I am the person I know best.”

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Diego Rivera became Frida’s husband. He was the “famous Mexican muralist” and encouraged her to paint in the style of Mexican popular art, a ‘folkloric’ style of painting.She participated in a ‘Mexican Renaissance,’ returning Mexican art to its native roots.”This style of art used a lot of bright, striking color.

Notice the pride and folkloric style in Frida’s use of parrots and bright flowers here.

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Much of Frida Kahlo’s later art was considered by critics to be of the surrealist school, but she never considered herself a surrealist. She said, ‘I never painted dreams … I painted my own reality.”

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It is ironic that the pain that had caused her to turn to art became the undoing of her art. Sadly, painkillers robbed her of her eye for detail and destroyed the clarity of her work before her death at age 47.

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Quiz

Question 1: Who was Frida Kahlo?

a. a political leader

b. an opera singer

c. an artist

Good Job!

You have paid attention!

Try again.

She was a creative person.

Try again.

She was not known for music.

Quiz

Question 2: What influences many of the bright colors in her paintings?

a. Impressionist style

b. Folkloric art

c. Surrealism

Good Job!

Folkloric art involves bright colors.

Try again.

Impressionism used more pastels.

Try again.

Remember she did not consider herself a surrealist.

Quiz

Question 3: Why did Frida start painting?

a. She got a scholarship to the University of Mexico.

b. She had to give up a dream of medical school.

c. She wanted to glorify and promote communism.

Good Job!

She did give up her dream.

Try again.

It was not a money issue.

Try again.

Her political advocacy came later.

Quiz

Question 4: What famous artist did Frida marry?

a. Diego Rivera

b. Pablo Picasso

c. Andre Breton

Good Job!

She married Diego Rivera, famous for his

murals portraying lives and activities of

common men of Mexico.

Try again. Wrong man. Not this artist.

Try again. Wrong man. Frida married a painter.

Quiz

Question 5: Why did Frida not consider herself a surrealist?

a. Her paintings were too realistic.

b. Her paintings showed dreams.

c. Her paintings showed her reality.

Good Job! What she painted she considered reality.

Try again. This was typical of surrealism which Frida did not think she typified.

Try again. This was not altogether true.

Quiz

Question 6: What was the focus of over one-fourth of Frida’s paintings?

a. landscapes

b. herself

c. war

Good Job! She felt she was the person she knew best and painted herself.

Try again. This subject did not monopolize over one-fourth of her work.

Try again. This subject did not monopolize over one-fourth of her work.

You have just learned about the life and seen some paintings of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/kahlo/

Image of woman with monkey was found at:

http://www.fridakahlo.com/art.shtml

Frida with bird and Frida dedicated to Leon Trotsky are from:

http://www.oceansbridge.com/oil-paintings/page.php?jssCart=ae5f785353c89b9a29b5359863bab898&xPage=sectionlist.html&xSec=616

Oriental Frida and Frida in black are from:

http://fridakahlofans.com/biobrief.html

http://fridakahlofans.com/essay.html

http://En.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frida_Kahlo

State Standards: Modern Foreign Language (Spanish)Standard 2.1 Students demonstrate knowledge and understanding of daily life, traditional ideas and perspectives, institutions, literary and artistic expressions, and other components and aspects of the cultures being studied. Grades 11, 12

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