Friday I love – Frida Kahlo

While observing the flowers trend this Autumn I was reminded of the artist Frida Kahlo. Kahlo’s love of bold colors as well as flowers and patterns was obvious both in her paintings and her dressing.

In many of her paintings, often self-portraits,  she is dressed in bold and bright red, blues and greens and frequently with flowers or bows in her hair.

Frida Kahlo was a Mexican artist born in 1907, to a Hungarian father and a mother of Mexican Indian descent. Art critics describe her work  as surrealist, symbolism and realist.

Most of her 200 paintings and drawings are self portraits, exploring her experience as a woman  of mixed origins, who endured  much suffering. Her whole life was marked by illness, starting at the age of 6 when she suffered from polio and during her teenagers years, when she  was badly injured in  a bus accident.

In contrast to the cheerful and bright colors of her paintings, the themes of her works  often dealt with the emotional and physical consequences of the  accident  as well as the anguish she suffered during her marriage to the well known artist Diego Rivera.

The arrows  piercing the dear’s body no doubt refer to Kahlo’s own pain and suffering due to her injuries as well as her trying marriage.

I wonder whether through the suffering and pain that  Frida Kahlo experienced, she chose to use bright colors and images of birds and flowers in order  to sooth her anguished life. Similarly, is it possible that the fashion trend of bold flowers pattern and stripes are a subliminal balm to calm the difficulty many people around the world  are suffering these days as the result of the economic crisis? (After all, fashion does not design for misery and depression! )

I wish you a colorful weekend! Sara