Frida Kahlo

Question 1

When was Frida Kahlo alive?

Answer 1

1907-1954

Question 2

Name two Frida Kahlo artworks

Answer 2

The Wounded Deer and Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird

Question 3

What are the structural aspects of The Wounded Deer?

Answer 3

• Oil paint on canvas
• Abstract imagery
• Transforms her body into a deer with her head that has been fatally shot with many arrows as it lies in a barren forest

Question 4

When was The Wounded Deer painted?

Answer 4

1946

Question 5

What is the intention of The Wounded Deer?

Answer 5

• Reflects her time in hospital recovering from a disabling injury through her conceptual painting
• serious bus accident condemned her to a life of chronic pain and left her wheelchair-bound
• expressed her interpretation of her life consisting of pain and disappointment

Question 6

What do the arrows stabbing the deer represent in The Wounded Deer?

Answer 6

Kahlo’s pain from her injuries and her emotional pain and disappointment from another failed surgery

Question 7

What does the deer represent in The Wounded Deer?

Answer 7

• symbolises hope or innocence
• It has been fatally shot - communicates her feelings of hopelessness to the audience
• felt that she was destined to live a life of suffering

Question 8

What do the dead trees in The Wounded Deer represent?

Answer 8

• her surroundings didn’t seem like a place worth staying
• struggled with depression after the botched surgery, making her life seem dull and insignificant

Question 9

When was Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird painted?

Answer 9

1940

Question 10

What are the structural aspects of Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird?

Answer 10

• Oil paint on canvas
• Depicts Kahlo wearing a thorn necklace with a dead hummingbird attached in front of a luscious green forest
• Behind her is a monkey tugging on her necklace making her neck bleed
• A black cat is getting ready to pounce in the middle ground

Question 11

What does the dead hummingbird represent in Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird?

Answer 11

• hummingbirds are good luck charms in Mexico symbolising love
• metaphor for how Kahlo felt that she and Rivera’s love was dying

Question 12

What does the spider monkey pulling on Kahlo’s necklace represent in Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird?

Answer 12

• Rivera once gave her a spider monkey as a gift
• Rivera hurt her emotionally during their marriage

Question 13

What do the thorns represent in Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird?

Answer 13

felt that the emotional pain of his infidelity was equivalent to being stabbed with thorns

Question 14

What does the black cat in front of the green forest represent in Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird?

Answer 14

• Kahlo often used lush nature to represent fertility
• Black cats are often a symbol of bad luck, especially in Mexico where the culture is very superstitious
• By placing the cat in front of the green forest she is making it more prominent, expressing her issues with infertility due to her injuries