EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E
Sexing the Canvas: Art and Gender
Jeanette Hoorn, The University of Melbourne
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C O U R S E L E C T U R E Frida Kahlo's Fulang-Chang and I Notes taken on May 16, 2019 by Edward Tanguay |
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Frida Kahlo (1907-1954)
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two portraits
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1. self portrait of cropped hair of 1940
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2. Fulang-Chang and I of 1937
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aspects of femininity
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Mexican artist
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married to the famous muralist Diego Rivera
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140 works in which 55 were self-portraits
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"I paint myself because I am often alone and I am the subject that I know best"
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had a serious bus accident as a young woman
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paintings show her use of intense colors and use of line
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her work is sometimes described as surrealist
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but she rejected the idea that she was a surrealist
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but she painted her experiences as a woman with honesty and directness
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"I never painted dreams, I painted only my own reality"
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1938, Breton described Kahlo's work as a ribbon around a bomb
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a number of her portraits depict her with a monkey
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portrait with spider monkey
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at first glance it seems innocent and charming
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animals formed an essential part of her world as an artist
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the monkey represents a surrogate child, the one she was unable to conceive with her husband Diego
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as a result of her 1925 bus accident, after which she had multiple miscarriages
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she paints her monkeys and other animals with respect and tenderness
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she kept a large number of them
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an eagle, parakeets, macaws, hens, a dog and even a fawn
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Kahlo had a very close relationship with animals
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she did not use her art to define animals and humans as separate, but rather to dissolve the barrier
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1937: Fulang Chang and I
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we see a lavender ribbon that links the two figures
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in Mexican culture, the monkey symbolizes lust
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but Kahlo painted them with affection
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holds the monkey close to her body
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the color of her long, dark hair and the color of her trademark eyebrows are similar to the color of the monkey's fur
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this painting is a reverent ode to hair
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the hairy body of the monkey
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Kahlo's monobrow and mustache
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the lightly painted background enclose the two figures as if in a forest
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if the surrealists tried to break down the barriers between reality and dream, Frida did so through her artistic practice
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gave her friend this painting with a framed mirror, so that she could see herself together with them
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linked subjects together
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used ribbon to tie her body to that of the monkey
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an emotional depth
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steady and unfathomable gaze
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she looks at us as much as we look at her
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her paintings cannot be fully understood and appreciated separately from her life
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a slight sense of unease in the painting
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go against traditional notions of what is called high art
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1940: Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird
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monkey on one shoulder, a black cat on the other
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bird caught
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the thorns dig into her skin shows her pain from her divorce from Diego
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in background we see tropical plants
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symbolism
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entanglement, pain and death
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animal companions
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represented as an intricate and essential part of her world
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1940: Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair
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she does not use her art to sexualize herself
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but to undermine conventional expectations of femininity
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she returns the gaze
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emphasizes the defiance of normal conventions of self-portraits
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asks: what do you see, how do you see me?
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and also: how do you see my spider monkey?
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she asks: what do you think?