Frida Kahlo: “I don´t really know if my paintings are Surrealist or not, but I do know they represent the most frank expression of myself”

Frida Kahlo

In the Mind of Great Artists

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“I don´t really know if my paintings are Surrealist or not, but I do know they represent the most frank expression of myself.”
Frida Kahlo

At first sight, Frida Kahlo’s work may seem surrealist. In her paintings, we see delirious, dreamlike images. The use of symbols and metaphorical elements, placed next to each other in a way that seems illogical and in a dreamlike atmosphere, could make us think that she is releasing the unconscious.

However, in the most “pure” Surrealism, reason should not exercise any kind of control over the work. And in Frida’s paintings, these images are painted “consciously,” with a symbolic meaning when narrating the story of her love and suffering.

In 1939, the artist was invited to exhibit in Paris and André Breton, the great ideologist of that movement, tried to convince her that her works were surrealist. She expressed that she “did not paint dreams,” but her own life.

In fact, Frida was very tough on the artists of Paris and even tougher on Surrealism. She went so far as to say: “I hate Surrealism, it seems to me a decadent manifestation of bourgeois art.”

Image: The Wounded Deer (1946)

Recommended links:

About Frida Kahlo (1907-1954).

What’s an allegory?

Surrealism.

The Touch of Frida Kahlo.

Wonderful Female Painters: Remedios Varo.

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