Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird

Last updated
Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird
Spanish: Autorretrato con Collar de Espinas
Frida Kahlo (self portrait).jpg
Artist Frida Kahlo
Year1940
Medium Oil on canvas on masonite
Dimensions61.25 lookin cm× 47 cm(24.11 in× 18.5 in)
Location Harry Ransom Center, Austin, Texas, Austin

Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird (Autorretrato con Collar de Espinas) is a 1940 self-portrait by Mexican painter Frida Kahlo which also includes a black cat, a monkey, and two dragonflies. It was painted after Kahlo's divorce from Diego Rivera and the end of her affair with photographer Nickolas Muray.

Contents

Muray bought the portrait shortly after it was painted, and it is currently part of the Nickolas Muray collection at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. [1]

Background

Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter active between 1925 and 1954. She began painting while bedridden due to a bus accident that left her seriously injured. Most of her work consists of self-portraits, which deal directly with her struggle with medical issues, infertility, and her troubeparate Frida on which to project her anguish and pain. [2] Scholars have interpreted her self-portraits as a way for Kahlo to reclaim her body from medical issues and gender conformity. In particular, scholars have interpreted her self-portraits in the context of the tradition of male European artists using the female body as the subject of their paintings and an object of desire. [3] Kahlo, using her own image, reclaims this use from the patriarchal tradition. The autobiographical details of her life found in these works as well as her characteristic brows, elaborate hair, and vibrant Mexican clothing has made her a popular figure in Mexico and the United States.

Kahlo was a big supporter of the Mexican Revolution, so much so that she attempted to change her birth date to correspond with the beginning of the Revolution in 1910. [2] At the onset of this movement, a so-called “cult of Mexican femininity” gained popularity, which Jolie Olcott describes as “selflessness, martyrdom, self-sacrifice, an erasure of self and the negation of one’s outward existence.” [4] In rejection of this limited conception of femininity, Kahlo fashioned herself as a Mexican counterpart to the flappers of the United States and Europe in the 1920s. Later, inspired by Rivera's concept of Mexicanidad, a passionate identification with Mexican pre-Hispanic indigenous roots, she donned the identity of the Tehuana woman. [2] The Tehuana had a great deal of equality with their male Zapotec counterparts and represented strength, sensuality, and exoticism. [5]

Visual analysis

This rather small painting (approximately 24” × 18”) shows Kahlo in a frontal position and directly confronting the viewer's gaze from the canvas with leaves behind her in the background. Her bold eyebrows hold the emphasis on her face, as a thorn necklace strangles her throat, trailing down her chest like the roots of a tree. A small black hummingbird with its wings outstretched hangs like a pendant from her throat. She is surrounded by insects and animals, setting the scene of a lush, but suffocatingly dense jungle. A monkey sits behind her right shoulder, its eyes focused on its hands, tugging at the thorn necklace, causing Kahlo to bleed. Above her head, two dragonflies float in mid-air, above two butterfly clips nesting in the elaborate hairstyle that crowns her head. A black cat with striking ice blue eyes peers up from the foliage over her left shoulder.

Symbolism

Kahlo's identification with indigenous Mexican culture affected her painting aesthetic. By using powerful iconography from indigenous Mexican culture, Kahlo situates herself in a tradition of rebellion against colonial forces and male rule. [5] The dead hummingbird which hangs around her neck is considered a good luck charm for falling in love in Mexican folklore. [6] An alternative interpretation is that the hummingbird pendant is a symbol of Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of war. [7] Meanwhile, the cat is symbolic of bad luck and death and the monkey is a symbol of evil. [6] The natural landscape, which normally symbolizes fertility, contrasts with the deathly imagery in the foreground. Rivera gave Kahlo a spider monkey as a gift, thus suggesting that it could be a symbol of Rivera, especially since he inflicts pain upon Kahlo by tugging the thorn necklace hard enough to make her bleed. [6] Alternatively, the thorn necklace could allude to Christ's crown of thorns, thus likening herself to a Christian martyr, and representing the pain and anguish she felt after her failed romantic relationships. In line with this interpretation, the butterflies and dragonflies could symbolize her resurrection. [5]

Exhibition history

The University of Texas at Austin acquired the painting in 1966. Since 1990, it has appeared in several exhibitions internationally:

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Ditrich, "Self-portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird".
  2. 1 2 3 Herrera, “Kahlo, Frida".
  3. ↑ Udall, “Frida Kahlo’s Mexican Body,” 13.
  4. ↑ Pankl and Blake, “Made in Her Image,” 5.
  5. 1 2 3 Pankl and Blake, “Made in Her Image,” 8.
  6. 1 2 3 Fuentes and Kahlo, The Diary of Frida Kahlo,” 78.
  7. ↑ Baddeley, “Her Dress Hangs Here,” 13.
  8. ↑ "Frida Kahlo". Philadelphia Museum of Art. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  9. ↑ "In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States". Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  10. ↑ "Frida Kahlo's "Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird" at Ransom Center in Austin". Art Daily. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  11. ↑ "Frida Kahlo: List of Works". Scuderie del Quirinale. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  12. ↑ "Frida Kahlo's Self-portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird". Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  13. ↑ "About the Show: Frida Kahlo: Art, Garden, Life". New York Botanical Garden. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  14. ↑ "Frida Kahlo and Arte Popular". Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Retrieved 28 April 2019.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diego Rivera</span> Mexican muralist (1886–1957)

Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera, was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the mural movement in Mexican and international art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frida Kahlo</span> Mexican painter (1907-1954)

Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Inspired by the country's popular culture, she employed a naïve folk art style to explore questions of identity, postcolonialism, gender, class, and race in Mexican society. Her paintings often had strong autobiographical elements and mixed realism with fantasy. In addition to belonging to the post-revolutionary Mexicayotl movement, which sought to define a Mexican identity, Kahlo has been described as a surrealist or magical realist. She is also known for painting about her experience of chronic pain.

Events from the year 1940 in art.

<i>Frida</i> (film) 2002 film directed by Julie Taymor

Frida is a 2002 American biographical drama film directed by Julie Taymor which depicts the professional and private life of the surrealist Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lola Álvarez Bravo</span> Mexican photographer (1903–1993)

Lola Álvarez Bravo was the first Mexican female photographer and a key figure in the post-revolution Mexican renaissance. Known for her high level of skill in composition, her works were seen by her peers as fine art. She was recognized in 1964 with the Premio José Clemente Orozco, by the State of Jalisco, for her contributions to photography and her efforts to preserve the culture of Mexico. Her works are included in the permanent collections of international museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nickolas Muray</span> Hungarian-born American photographer and Olympic saber fencer

Nickolas Muray was a Hungarian-born American photographer and Olympic saber fencer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frida Kahlo Museum</span> Art museum in Mexico City

The Frida Kahlo Museum, also known as the Blue House for the structure's cobalt-blue walls, is a historic house museum and art museum dedicated to the life and work of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. It is located in the Colonia del Carmen neighborhood of Coyoacán in Mexico City. The building was Kahlo's birthplace, the home where she grew up, lived with her husband Diego Rivera for a number of years, and where she later died in a room on the upper floor. In 1957, Diego Rivera donated the home and its contents in order to turn it into a museum in Frida's honor.

Nahum B. Zenil is a Mexican artist who often uses his own self-portrait as the principal model for a cultural critical interpretation of Mexico, especially concerning homosexuality and mestization. Zenil was born in 1947 in the state of Veracruz. In 1959, he enrolled at the Escuela Nacional de Maestros in Mexico City, from which he graduated in 1964. It was during this period in which Zenil became interested in painting. He later entered the Escuela Nacional de Pintura y Escultura in Mexico City in 1968. He is also one of the founding members of the Semana Cultural Gay, which occurs yearly at the Museo Universitario del Chopo. His art is often compared to that of Frida Kahlo, in which the self becomes the principal object of their paintings letting the viewer discover the artists as individuals as well as the broader social and cultural contexts in which they lived through the medium of self-portraiture.

<i>Self-Portrait with Monkey</i> Painting by Frida Kahlo

Self-Portrait with Monkey is an oil on masonite painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, commissioned in 1938 by A. Conger Goodyear, then president of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. It is one of the many self-portraits painted by Kahlo for friends and patrons during her career.

<i>The Two Fridas</i> Painting by Frida Kahlo

The Two Fridas is an oil painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. The painting was the first large-scale work done by Kahlo and is considered one of her most notable paintings. It is a double self-portrait, depicting two versions of Kahlo seated together. One is wearing a white European-style Victorian dress while the other is wearing a traditional Tehuana dress. The painting is housed at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City.

<i>What the Water Gave Me</i> (painting) Painting by Frida Kahlo

What the Water Gave Me is an oil painting by Frida Kahlo that was completed in 1938. It is sometimes referred to as What I Saw in the Water.

<i>The Wounded Table</i> Painting by Frida Kahlo

The Wounded Table is an oil painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Although lost in 1955, three photos of this painting were taken between 1940 and 1944. The painting was first displayed in January 1940 at the International Surrealism Exhibit at Inés Amor's Gallery of Mexican Art in Mexico City, and a replica is currently displayed in the Kunstmuseum Gehrke-Remund, Baden-Baden, Germany. The painting was last exhibited in Warsaw in 1955, after which it disappeared, and is the subject of an ongoing international search.

<i>The Wounded Deer</i> Painting by Frida Kahlo

The Wounded Deer is an oil painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo created in 1946. It is also known as The Little Deer. Through The Wounded Deer, Kahlo shares her enduring physical and emotional suffering with her audience, as she did throughout her creative oeuvre. This painting in particular was created towards the end of Kahlo's life, when her health was in decline. Kahlo combines pre-Columbian, Buddhist, and Christian symbols to express her wide spectrum of influences and beliefs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mardonio Magaña</span>

Mardonio Magaña-Camacho (c.1865–1947) also known as Magañita, was a Mexican educator and sculptor known for his folk art stone direct carvings, he was also known to work with wood and mud. He was a self-taught artist inspired by nature, that was "discovered" by artist Diego Rivera. It's said that Diego Rivera was quoted as saying Magaña was, "the greatest contemporary Mexican sculptor".

Cristina Kahlo y Calderón (1908–1964) was the sister of artist Frida Kahlo. Frida painted a portrait of Cristina, titled Portrait of Cristina, My Sister, and Diego Rivera, Frida's husband, also portrayed Cristina Kahlo in his work. Cristina, with whom Rivera had an affair, was painted by Rivera in the nude.

<i>Frieda and Diego Rivera</i> 1931 painting by Frida Kahlo

Frieda and Diego Rivera is a 1931 oil painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. This portrait was created two years after Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera married, and is widely considered a wedding portrait.

<i>Two Nudes in a Forest</i> Painting by Frida Kahlo

Two Nudes in a Forest is an oil painting by Mexican painter Frida Kahlo that was completed in 1939. It is also referred to as The Earth, Two Nudes in the Wood, or My Nurse and I. The painting was given to a close woman companion of Kahlo's, who some believe to be actress Dolores del Río. The two women in the painting also appear in Kahlo's 1938 painting What the Water Gave Me, and her spider monkey, which views the couple from the forest, also appears in Kahlo's 1937 Fulang-Chang and I.

<i>Diego and I</i> Painting by Frida Kahlo

Diego and I is a 1949 oil painting by the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954).

The Rivals is a 1931 oil-on-canvas painting by the Mexican artist Diego Rivera (1886–1957). It was commissioned by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, the leading personage behind the inception of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Rivera created the work while on the ship SS Moro en route from Mexico to New York City. The picture portrays "Las Velas", a festival held in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, a fete in honor of local patron saints and of the abundance of spring.

Self Portrait with Loose Hair, also known as Self Portrait with Unbound Hair, is a 1947 oil-on-masonite painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.