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UNIT TITLE Frida Kahlo：The Fantastic Ways of Expression
Fu, Pin-Hui National Taiwan Normal University Art Department
￭OVERVIEW In this unit, students will be introduced to a number of Frida Kahlo’s self-portraits which the artist used to express her feelings, love and patriotism. Students will be asked to discuss and describe the diverse forms and techniques that Frida Kahlo used to express herself by the practice of analyzing and interpreting several of her paintings. Then, students are to select one of the forms or techniques to do a self-portrait with a message of conveying their own feelings and emotions.
￭UNIT OBJECTIVES 1. Art history：Students will be engaged in historical research and present their findings afterwards. They are to study materials about Kahlo’s life and a brief background history of Mexico. 2. Art criticism：Students will be practicing feelings interpretation from Kahlo’s painting. 3. Aesthetics：Students will be involved in discussions to distinguish and classify the symbols that Kahlo used in her paintings. 4. Art making：Students will be doing one self-portrait to express themselves based on the same ideas that Kahlo used for her expressions.
￭TIMEFRAME 8 class sessions (360 mins)
￭MATERIALS FOR PRODUCTION 1. Notebooks and sketchbooks 2. Pencils、color pencils、crayons、soft pastles 3. Drawing papers
￭RESOURCES 1. Pictures of Kahlo’s portraits from books、magazines and the internet. 2. PowerPoint of designated works by Kahlo.
￭EVALUATION OPTIONS 1. Written summary about Kahlo’s life and works. 2. Written response to designated paintings. 3. Essay on the symbolism of Kahlo’s paintings. (Worksheet) 4. Assessment of quality of student paintings.
LESSON 1 About Frida Kahlo
￭FOCUS Frida Kahlo’s life was full of extraordinary experiences. With those experiences came numerous feelings of passion, love, expectations as well as pain, sadness, frustration, and anger which all became powerful motivations and stimulus of her nonstop creation.
￭OBJECTIVES Students will: 1. Be introduced to some works and photos of Kahlo 2. Study Kahlo’s life, including her family, health, love relationships and beliefs. 3. Make a list of events that might make great impacts on Kahlo and influence her creating.
￭RESOURCES ? PowerPoint: My Grandparents, My Parents and I 1936
? PowerPoint: The Wounded Deer 1946
? PowerPoint: Frida and Diego Rivera 1931
? PowerPoint: Self-portrait with monkey 1929
? PowerPoint: Photo taken by Nickolas Muray 1938~39
￭TIMEFRAME 2 class sessions (90 mins)
￭MATERIALS AND PREPARATION Students will use pencils to take notes on their notebooks and list out big events in Kahlo’s life.
￭INTRODUCTION Kahlo’s self-portraits are reflections of her own stories and life experiences. We can also find a strong connection between her and her home town Mexico. Students will be introduced to some paintings of Kahlo, study materials about Kahlo’s life and a brief introduction to modern history of Mexico, in order to see how deeply an artist’s background and experiences may affect his/her art creations.
￭INSTRUCTION 1. Show the PowerPoint of Kahlo’s self-portraits and photos. Briefly introduce the background of Kahlo’s paintings, and encourage students to explore more of the stories behind these paintings by themselves. 2. Divide students into 4 groups, distribute background materials to the groups. Each group is to study the materials about Kahlo and pick one theme from the following: Family, health, love relationships, and beliefs to do a group presentation. 3. Write down four themes on the board, and then ask students to list events according to the themes that had great impacts on Kahlo and her creating. 4. Show the PowerPoint again, and ask students to speculate about what events were reflected on these paintings. Meanwhile, start to brainstorm students with related ideas, such as ”how an artist’s background and experiences may influence his/her art creations,” or “how much can a painting tell us about the artist?”
￭EVALUATION 1. Show the PowerPoint again and ask students to write a paragraph about contexts or stories reflected in the paintings. 2. Were students able to match the paintings to the right context?
￭BACKGROUND Biography of Frida Kahlo and Artist Timeline(written materials about Kahlo and about Mexico )
Biography of Frida Kahlo Frida Kahlo was born of European and Mexican descent in 1907 in the Mexico City suburb of Coyoacán, in the same blue house where she died 47 years later. She gave her birth date as July 7,1910, but her birth certificate shows July 6,1907. This is just one of the many lies Frida told about her life.
When Frida entered high school she was a tomboy full of mischief who became the ringleader of a rebellious group of mainly boys that continually caused trouble in the National Preparatory School. This group pulled many pranks , mainly on professors. It was also in the National Preparitory School that Frida first came in contact with her future husband, the famous Mexican muralist, Diego Rivera. He was commissioned to paint a mural in the school's auditorium.
On September 17, 1925, at about age 18, Frida Kahlo was involved in a serious bus accident which left her with a broken spinal column, a broken collarbone, broken ribs, a broken pelvis, and 11 fractures in her right leg. In addition her right foot was dislocated and crushed, and her shoulder was out of joint. For a month, Frida was forced to stay flat on her back, encased in a plaster cast and enclosed in a boxlike structure.
Frida's enormous strength and will to live allowed her to survive and make a remarkable recovery. She began painting shortly after the accident because she was bored in bed. This became her lifelong profession.
Although Frida's recovery was miraculous (she regained her ability to walk), she did have relapses of tremendous pain and fatigue all throughout her life, which caused her to be hospitalized for long periods of time, bedridden at times, and also caused her to undergo numerous operations. She once joked that she held the record for the most operations. Frida underwent about 30 in her lifetime. She also turned to alcohol, drugs, and cigarettes to ease the pain of her physical suffering. Once she was out and about after her accident, a close friend introduced Frida to the artistic crowd of Mexico, which included Tina Modotti (well known photographer,actress, and communist) and Diego Rivera.
Despite Diego's affairs with other women (one was with Frida's sister), he helped in many ways. He suggested to Frida that she should begin wearing the traditional Mexican clothing, which consisted of long, colorful dresses and exotic jewelry. This, along with Frida's thick, connecting eyebrows, became her trademark. He also loved her work and was her greatest admirer. Frida, in turn, was Diego's most trusted critic, and the love of his life.
Frida let out all of her emotions on a canvas. She painted her anger and hurt over her stormy marriage, the painful miscarriages, and the physical suffering she underwent because of the accident.
Frida, despite all of the hurt in her life, was an outgoing person whose vocabulary was filled with 4 letter words. She loved to drink tequila and sing off color songs to guests at the crazy parties she hosted. She loved telling dirty jokes and shocking everyone around her. Frida amazed people with her beauty and everywhere she went, people stopped in their tracks to stare in wonder. Men were fascinated with her, and because of this Frida had numerous, scandal filled affairs.
One affair was with the Communist leader, Leon Trotsky. It began when he was a guest at her home along with his wife. Frida was later arrested for his murder, but was let go. Diego was also under suspicion for the murder, but he was let go as well. Several years after Trotsky's death, Diego and Frida enjoyed telling people that they invited him to Mexico just to get him killed, but no one knows if they were telling the truth or not. They were fantastic story tellers.
Frida also was a bisexual and had affairs with many women. All over the world, people loved Frida. When she went to France, she was wined and dined by Picasso, and appeared on the cover of the french Vogue. In America, people loved her beauty and her work. In Mexico, her homeland, she had many great admirers.
During the same year as her exhibition, Frida had to have her right leg amputated below the knee due to a gangrene infection. This caused her to become deeply depressed and suicidal.
She attempted suicide a couple of times. On July 13, 1954, Frida died. No official autopsy was done. Suicide is rumored. Her last words in her diary read "I hope the leaving is joyful and I hope never to return".
Reference source: Kimberley Masters (1996).Biography of Frida Kahlo. Retrieved May 29, 2003, from http://members.aol.com/fridanet/kahlo.htm
Artist Timeline 2000 B.C. -1519 1521-1821 1848-76 1879 1886 1907 1913-15 1917-20 1922-25 1929 1931-34 1937-39 1943-53 1954 1955-58
Reference source: Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky. (n. d.). Retrieved May 29, 2003, from The Getty’s Art Education Web Site: http://www.getty.edu/artsednet/resources/Maps/Women/Kahlo/index.html
Reference source: The Mexican Revolution of 1910. (n. d.). Retrieved May 29, 2003, from: Mexico Online http://www.mexonline.com/revolution.htm
LESSON 2 Feelings and ways of expression in Kahlo’s works
￭FOCUS In Kahlo’s Self-portraits, she used a lot of symbols to express her feelings about life, love and patriotism. Self-portrait is definitely very personal and individual. It is one way that an artist can intensively express his/her own emotions, feelings and ideas.
￭OBJECTIVES Students will: 1. Be introduced to more of Frida Kahlo’s self-portraits. 2. Try to identify feelings or ideas that Kahlo wanted to express. 3. Discuss and analyze the symbols Kahlo used in her paintings.
￭RESOURCES ?PowerPoint: My Grandparents, My Parents and I 1936 My Nurse and I 1937
?PowerPoint: Frida and Diego Rivera 1931 Self-portrait with Itzcuintli Dog 1938 Self-portrait with Cropped Hair 1940
Self-portrait with Braid 1941 Me and My Parrots 1941 Self- portrait as a Tehuana 1943
Diego and I 1949 ? PowerPoint: Thinking about Death 1943
Tree of Hope, Keep Firm 1946
The Wounded Deer 1946 ?PowerPoint: Self-portrait with monkey 1929 Self-portrait on the Borderline between Mexico and United States 1932 ?PowerPoint: Photo (Kahlo and Diego)taken by Nickolas Muray 1928 Photo (Kahlo, Diego and Itcuintli Dog) 1938 Photo (Kahlo and Diego) 1954 Photo (Kahlo painting on the bed) 1936
Photo (Kahlo and Diego) 1950
￭TIMEFRAME 2 class sessions (90 mins)
￭MATERIALS AND PREPARATION Students will use worksheets to describe and analyze the symbols Kahlo included in some of her self-portraits.
￭INTRODUCTION Kahlo used symbolism extensively to convey her feelings and ideas. By showing Kahlo’s paintings, students will be asked to describe their won thinking on what kind of feelings that Kahlo was trying to express. Students will learn to analyze and group the symbols and forms that the artist used in her expressions.
￭INSTRUCTION 1. Divide students into groups. 2. Show PowerPoint of Kahlo’s self-portraits sorted by the themes of family, health, love relationships and beliefs, and also include most common symbols and forms Kahlo used. 3. Ask students to speculate about what message the artist was attempting to convey in her work. The following are sample questions to be asked to the students: 4. Distribute pictures of Kahlo’s paintings and worksheets to each group. Ask questions: 5. Develop ideas such as ”by self-portraits and symbolism, artists can intensively express his/her own emotions, feelings and ideas, and make self-portrait a unique form and personal style of art.”
￭EVALUATION 1. Oral report and written report about Kahlo’s symbolism. 2. Were students able to identify and list symbols used by Kahlo? 3. Were students able to make judgment on the symbols used by Kahlo?
￭BACKGROUND KAHLO’S PROSE AND HER FEELINGS. (written materials about Kahlo’s love and pain from her diary.)
Kahlo's prose and her feelings An eight-page entry begins here with an amorous letter to Rivera. Kahlo's response to his sexual magnetism reveals another facet of her feelings toward her husband. While some of the imagery is unconventional, her unreserved passion is just barely concealed by her metaphoric prose. Following the letter are several pages that may be addressed to Rivera as well. Kahlo's thoughts meander from succinct but vivid images — "Fingers of the wind," "the bleeding children"—to more meditative albeit vague reflections on art and color and the importance of the "golden section," a topic she returns to later in her journal (plate 121). The words "auxocromo" and "cromoforo" appear several times, and Kahlo defines them in terms of her relationship with Rivera. Art and love intermingle in her mind; there are no boundaries between her and Rivera.
My Diego: Mirror of the night. Your eyes green swords inside my flesh, waves between our hands. All of you in a space full of sounds – in the shade and in the light. You were called AUXCHROME the one who captures color. I CHROMOPHORE - the one who gives color. You are all the combinations of numbers. life. My wish is to understand lines form shades movement. You fulfill and I receive. Your word travels the entirety of space and reaches my cells which are my stars then goes to yours which are my light. Ghosts.
Diego beginning Diego builder Diego my child Diego my boyfriend Diego painter Diego my lover Diego "my husband" Diego my friend Diego my mother Diego my father Diego my son Diego = me = Diego Universe Diversity within unity.
Although the gangrene detected on Kahlo's right foot appeared not to have progressed for several years, by August 1953, the extent of its damage made amputation inevitable. The right leg was removed at the knee.
Years. Waiting with anguish hidden away, my spine broken, and the immense glance, footless through the vast path . . . Carrying on my life enclosed in steel. Diego!
Supporting points In my entire figure There is only one, and I want two. For me to have two they must cut one off It is the one / don't have the one I have to have to be able to walk the other will be dead! I have many, wings. Cut them off and to hell with it!!
Reference source: Freeman, P. (Ed.). (1995). The Diary of Frida Kahlo, an Intimate Self-Portrait. La Vaca Independiente S. A. de C.V, New York / México: Harry N. Abrams, INC., Publishers.
LESSON 3 Use Kahlo’s forms and techniques to express yourself
￭FOCUS Self-portrait can convey personal feelings and ideas. Create a self-portrait based on the artist’s symbols or forms. This practice allows both experiencing the way of an artist’s self-expressions and creating your own expressive work of art.
￭OBJECTIVES Students will: 1. Select one symbol or form that Kahlo used. 2. Use this symbol or form to create a self-portrait to express their feelings of life, love, or hometown. 3. Practice to describe and explain their self-portraits.
￭RESOURCES ? Pictures of designated Kahlo’s self-portraits.
￭TIMEFRAME 4 class sessions (180 mins)
￭MATERIALS AND PREPARATION ? Pencils、color pencils、crayons or soft pastles ? Drawing papers
￭INTRODUCTION Most people are deeply impressed by Kahlo’s self-portraits because they see extraordinary emotions and distinctive techniques in these paintings. It cannot be overlooked the importance of Kahlo’s paintings through out the art history. Students’ practice of self-portrait will be based on Kahlo’s symbols or forms. Students will be asked to try to express themselves from painting, try to make the portrait as impressive as possible, and try to describe and explain their self-portrait.
￭INSTRUCTION 1. Prepare all materials for art making activity. 2. Tell students of the following criteria of art making: 3. After the activity, put every student’s works on the board. Sort their works by different symbols or forms. 4. Ask students to introduce their self-portraits to the class, including the symbols they used and feelings they want to express.
￭EVALUATION 1. Did students use at least one kind of symbols or forms of Kahlo’s to create their self-portraits? 2. Did students express the feelings of life, love, or beliefs in their self-portraits? 3. Did students make their self-portraits as impressive as possible? 4. Can students describe the symbols or forms they used? 5. Can students explain the messages they attempt to express?
SUGGESTED READINGS Kettenmann, A. (1998). Frida Kahlo. Germany: Benedikt Taschen.
Freeman, P. (Ed.). (1995). The Diary of Frida Kahlo, an Intimate Self-Portrait. La Vaca Independiente S. A. de C.V, New York / México: Harry N. Abrams, INC., Publishers.
WORLD WIDE WEB RESOURCES http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/kahlo_frida.html ?Welcome to the World of Frida Kahlo http://members.aol.com/fridanet/kahlo.htm ?Women Artists Frida Kahlo (Getty artsednet) http://www.getty.edu/artsednet/resources/Maps/Women/Kahlo/index.html ?Mexico Online ?The History of Mexico http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/mexico/
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