Frida Kahlo was born
in Coyoacan, Mexico City, Mexico in 1907. She is a self-taught painter that
began to paint in 1925 after a tragic bus accident which left her in a full
body cast for three months. Her painting styled ranged from influences from the
Renaissance to Surrealism. Her work led her to become known as a master of
self-portraits. Frida often painted herself because according to her, she was
the subject she knew best. But as she painted herself, she also made an
emphasis on the unconventionality of female sexuality while also paying homage
to her Mexican heritage.
Frida Kahlo's My Birth painting is a clear-cut painting
portraying the unspoken horrors of childbirth. It was completed after Diego
Rivera, Kahlo's husband at the time, suggested she paint important life events,
which was also around the time of her miscarriage. It can be assumed the woman in the painting
is her mother, but according to her journal, Frida said the painting is of her
giving birth to herself. There are many hidden strong aspects portrayed in the
painting such as the blood around the head of what seems to be older than a
newborn, the covered "mother", and the Virgin of Sorrows above the
bed frame.
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