Frida Kahlo, Henry Ford Hospital, oil on canvas, 12 ¼" x 15 ½", 1932, from The Collection of Dolores Olmedo Mexico City, Mexico
Frida Kahlo de Rivera
was a Mexican painter, born in Coyoacán in
July 6, 1907. On July 13th, 1954, at the age of 47 she passed away.
Kahlo is best known for her self-portraits and her work is remembered
for its
"pain and passion", as well as its intense, vibrant colors. Her work has
been celebrated in Mexico as symbolic of national and indigenous
tradition, and
by feminists for its uncompromising depiction of the female experience
and
form. Kahlo suffered lifelong health problems, many of which stemmed
from a
traffic accident in her teenage years. These issues are reflected in her
works,
more than half of which are self-portraits of one sort or another. Kahlo
stated,
"I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject
I
know best."
The
image I am presenting is titled, Henry Ford Hospital but has also been
given the name, Flying Bed. This painting was the most painful self
portrait Frida Kahlo ever painted, because at this time she had her
second miscarriage and began to realize that she could never carry a
pregnancy to a full term due to her previous accidents. At the time of
this painting, Diego Rivera, her husband, was creating his now-famous
Detroit Industry frescoes at the Detroit Institute of Arts commissioned
by Edsel Ford who was President of the Detroit
Arts Commission at the time . Even-though the painting's title is Henry
Ford Hospital, and the Henry Ford Hospital was financed by and named
for Edsel's father, Frida did not consciously
mean to insult the Ford family by including their factories in the
background
of this painting. These water
towers and elevated conveyors for raw iron ore just happened to be what
occupied a lot of the scenery.
Artist Statement:
"I suffered two grave
accidents in my life…One in which a streetcar knocked me down and the other was
Diego."
The streetcar accident left her crippled physically and Rivera
crippled her emotionally.
"When I painted it I had the idea of a sexual thing mixed with the sentimental."
This
painting closely
resembles a Mexican retablo(votive painting). retablos are typically
done in
oils on a tin support. Retablos typically include a scene depicting a
tragedy or someone with a grave illness or injury, a Saint or martyr
that intervened to "save the day" and an inscription describing the
tragic event and giving thanks for the divine intervention. The six
surrounding
images are connected to her lower abdomen by umbilical cord-looking red
lines ,
which are specific to her miscarriage. Frida is the central point,
suffering with a single
tear much as Jesus Christ or a martyred saint would have, the blood is
evident,
and can only have come from a woman's reproductive organs. The fetus is
Diegito ("Little
Diego") who will not exist; the snail (at upper right) represents the
slow
horror of losing a baby; the machine (at lower left) symbolizes the mechanical part of
the miscarriage; the orchid (bottom center) according to Kahlo was a gift from her husband Diego.
In the background there is
industrial buildings, most likely the urban setting of Detroit, where
the hospital was located. The two
remaining images of a pelvis and side view of female anatomy point
towards her
broken body. Her fractured pelvis is what made it impossible for her to
have children. Here, it is important to remember that Frida had studied
medicine
prior to the bus accident that smashed her back and pelvis, and damaged
her
uterus. These were not "artistic" representations. She was aware of
that which had happened to her body, and why motherhood was such an
incredible
long shot because of it.
In this painting, we see how Kahlo copes with her own mortality and her
inability to have children. Kahlo dealt directly with death her entire
life. From such a young age that all vary from dealing with polio at age
6 to the traumatic incident she had at age 18 or the lifelong
relationship she had with her husband. Who better to think of when
thinking of mortality, than
Friday
Kahlo. Kahlo was injured so seriously that she suffered severe pain for
the rest of her life, and she was never able to have a child with her
husband, Diego Rivera.
Sources:
http://www.fridakahlo.com
