901. Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), Mexican,

The Two Fridas, 1939. Oil on canvas,

173.5 x 173 cm. Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City.

 

 

The six-foot square The Two Fridas would become Frida Kahlo’s signature masterpiece. A mirror had long played a central role in her paintings, at first from necessity due to her bed-ridden state. Later, the mirror became a reflection of reality that could be manipulated and translated into a fantasy vision of her very personal verité. In The Two Fridas, the mirror duality becomes a schizophrenic visualisation of Frida’s personal dilemma, the European woman (Frida) in white with lace and appliqués befitting a chaste Catholic girl, and the Tehuana woman of darker skin and colourful costume – the earthy peasant persona encouraged by Diego Rivera. Both hearts are exposed and a vine-like blood vessel connects a small amulet that is a miniature portrait of Diego as a child. The two hearts are the “Fridas”. The European “Frida’s” heart is ripped and savaged while she grips the end of the shared artery with a surgical clamp. But blood still drips from its end onto her snow white dress.