Frida Kahlo entre pinturas e anotações: As imagens e as palavras que representam uma vida de luta, resistência e arte revolucionária

Abstract

Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón was one of the most expressive painters of her time, incorporating strong and conceptual elements into her works, filled with symbolism. However, her productions reflect much more than the artist’s thoughts; interwoven with her life journey, her pictorial and written works are able to tell the story of her painful and challenging life, of the time she lived through, including the Mexican Revolution and her social circle, sharing with the reader insights into her family, relationships, and friends. Born, raised, and deceased in Mexico, Frida immortalized in her artworks the darkest and most profound moments of her existence. Since childhood—marked by jealousy, passions, and illnesses—she transformed her own body into an artistic language, using the paintbrush as an extension of her subjectivity. Through her artistic production, it is possible to follow the emotions that overflow from her lived experiences and materialize into intense images, laden with pain, desire, and identity affirmation. This research, based on the biography written by Hayden Herrera, The Diary of Frida Kahlo (with introduction and adaptation by Carlos Fuentes and Sarah M. Lowe), the autobiography Frida Kahlo by Rauda Jamís, as well as critical studies on her work and trajectory, seeks to understand how the artist translated her life into art. The aim is to identify, in the writings and images that compose her creative universe, the episodes that inspired her paintings, revealing how Frida, by painting her pain and anguish, established herself as one of the greatest figures in 20th-century art.