ZOOM ON ARCHETYPES / ZOOM SUR LES ARCHÈTYPES
“The art of Frida Kahlo is a ribbon about a bomb.”
« L’art de Frida est un ruban noué autour d’une bombe ».
André Breton
Returning back to Mexico, Frida went back to Casa Azul and finally accepted the divorce that Diego had been asking for her for quite some time. He sent her a letter in which he accused her of having difficulty to enjoy making love. This accusation was too much and she decided to go into isolation. She painted works such as Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair (1940), which expressed her devastation, her distress and her loss of identity. The physical appearance that she created after her marriage was no more. Frida depicted herself in an extract from a Mexican song: “Mira que si te quise, fué por el pelo / Ahora que estás pelona, ya no te
quiere.” During this difficult period, Frida suffered a nervous breakdown and new pain that forced her to leave for San Francisco to undergo new treatment from the Doctor Eloesser. Here, she met up with Diego who became a refugee since Trotsky’s attack for which he was falsely accused. Diego asked Frida to marry him again and she accepted on the condition that they have no more sexual relations and that she remain financially independent.
In 1941 after the death of her father, Guillermo Kahlo, Frida and Diego went to live at Casa Azul again and the house at San Angel was then used as Diego’s studio. From this time on, Frida was acknowledged by Mexican authorities and the Cultural Affairs Ministry of her country successively nominated her in 1942 as a member of the Seminario de Cultura
Mexicana and, in 1943, as professor of "La Esmeralda" Academy of Fine Arts. Her atypical teachings revolutionized the vision of learning that was until then confined to classrooms. She sent her students on the field to research a subject. “Muchachos, enclosed in this school, we cannot do anything. Let us paint in the streets.” Unfortunately, after a few months,
she had to transfer her classes to her house in Coyoacán, as she suffered new pain in her spine and foot. In 1946, she underwent more surgery in New York for her spine and this influenced her life once more. “I try in vain to be strong, but there are times when I’d like to throw in the towel.” However, this operation quickly proved to be insufficient and Frida had to undergo another operation in 1950 to have her right leg amputated. From then on, she required a wheelchair to move around and she systematically wore a plaster corset to support her spine. An easel attached to the bed was made for her and this enabled her to especially paint Self-Portrait with the Portrait of Doctor Farill (1951) as a token of thanks for the medical care he gave to her. From this moment on, Frida had to take her prescription medicine including marijuana, which made her paintings blurred and less meticulous as illustrated in her last still life paintings.
Seeing the weakening of Frida’s health, her friend Lola Alvarez Bravo decided to organize
De retour à Mexico, Frida s’installe à la Casa Azul et accepte enfin le divorce que lui propose depuis déjà quelques temps Diego. Il lui envoie une lettre dans laquelle il l’accuse de sa difficulté à jouir dans l’amour charnel. Cette phrase de trop décide Frida, en réponse, s’enfermer dans la solitude. Elle peint des tableaux qui comme L’Autoportrait aux cheveux coupés (1940) traduisent son abattement, son désarroi et sa perte d’identité. L’apparence physique qu’elle s’était créée à la suite de son mariage n’est plus. Frida se représente sous un extrait d’une chanson mexicaine « Mira que si te quise, fué por el pelo / Ahora que estás pelona, ya no te quiere » . Cette période difficile pour Frida s’accompagne d’une dépression nerveuse et de nouvelles douleurs qui l’obligent à partir pour San Francisco suivre un nouveau traitement auprès du Docteur Eloesser. Là elle retrouve Diego réfugié depuis l’attentat de Trotzki pour lequel il fut accusé à tort. Ce dernier lui redemande sa main et elle accepte à condition qu’ils n’aient plus de relations et qu’elle subvienne à ses propres besoins.
I“See, if I loved you, it was because of your hair; now you have cropped hair, and I don’t love you anymore.”
« Vois, si je t’aimais, c’était à cause de tes cheveux ; maintenant que tu as les cheveux coupés ras, je ne t’aime plus ».
The Mexican culture seminar was an actor in the promotion and stimulation of Mexican culture. / Le séminaire de culture mexicaine était un acteur de la promotion et de la stimulation de la culture mexicaine.
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Casa Azul, Coyoacan, Mexico
LATIN AMERICAN AND SOUTH AMERICAN ARTISTS / ARTISTES D'AMERIQUE LATINE ET D'AMERIQUE DU SUD