Images never merely portray an authentic reality but instead they “inevitably betray the values of the culture in which they were created” (Howells, 2003: 70)

Fig1.1: Self Portrait with Necklace of Thorns, 1940, Oil on Canvas

Fig. 1.2 Henry Ford Hospital (The Flying Bed), 1932, Oil on Metal

This paper will begin with a brief introduction of visual studies, painting in particular and go on to establish the fact that visual images not merely imitate reality but also inform the real world. When one views a painting, it is not complete objective view. There is a very thin line between objectivity and mind working under influence of ideologies. Complex interworking of representation of perceived reality by the painter, ideological approach of the viewer is at play, both, striving to figure out the real. The paper will try to analyze Frida Kahlo’s two paintings Self-Portrait With Thorn Necklace and Humming Bird and Henry ford hospital, The Flying Bed under this lens.
The term visual might seem to a layman too simplistic to be critically analyzed but the field of visual culture expands the scope of our ways of seeing and the perceptions that govern an individual's spectatorship. It is easy to define visual as "What is visible to eyes" but new vistas are opened when as students of visual studies we set to decipher the fact that our understanding of reality is primarily if not wholly based on our pre-conceived notions, acquired ideas, collective unconsciousness (Jung), ideologies etc. I call this method of visualizing as pre-conceived because it is governed by our societal cultures, traditions, norms and beliefs. Such a view brings us to the prime focus of visual studies i.e. authenticity. It raises such questions as if the viewer already has set ideology and notions in mind, and if the painter has set beliefs how can reality be represented or observed objectively. In painting and other genres of visual studies it is always more than what eyes see. It will not be an overstatement to consider that vision is superseded by the constructs in the mind of an individual which are in turn framed by multiple internal and external circumstances from life experiences, cultural constructs, popular view, superficial or apparent reality as seen by eyes devoid of intellectual channelization.
Feminist critics have often decried the supremacy of eyes and pre-conceived notions stating that such an understanding of reality is biased. This patriarchal notion is not only biased but also faulty not realizing that sensory feeling particularly, bodily touch is more revelatory and experiencing than what eyes see. So, representation of reality is often distorted specially when analyzing self-portraits of women like Frida Kahlo. She does not paint herself as a passive object intended for voyeuristic male gaze but her paintings are meant for deep contemplation both as an individual and as a spokesperson of women advocating for women's equality with their male counterpart. If it is more than what eyes see, it becomes all the more important to analyze the factors which complicate the reality and make it difficult for viewer to conclude on the authenticity. The viewer's understanding of realty is shaped by his/her culture. Carl Jung has called it "collective unconscious, Northrop Frye calls it "mythical archetypes." e.g. forbidden apple image. According to these writers, an individual living in any particular society unconsciously acquires certain traits, ideologies, values of his society. Thus, the society shapes an individual's ideologies through its myths, history and belief system. These value systems are ingrained in every individual's psyche so much so that he considers them to be natural and realistic understanding of images. Mind is not a tabula rasa but is manifested with "primordial images"(Jung) and ideologies. Representation of women in traditional paintings is characteristic of passivity devoid of any individual traits. However, Kahlo as a staunch radical feminist challenged these notions of male gaze strongly. Kahlo's paintings particularly self-portraits thwarted gender biased view. Her paintings engaged and shook the readers through her portrayal of grim and traumatic life forcing the viewer to see the "real" from "her"(Frida's) perspective and not through "his"(reader's) traditional eyes prejudiced by patriarchal worldview.
Berger's analysis of gender inequality present in nudity of women as represented in European paintings is in sharp contrast with individualism present in Kahlo's paintings. Kahlo true to her Mexican indigenous self presented a counter discourse for women in her paintings especially her self-portraits. This effort of challenging the established European male gaze made her a woman ahead of her times. In her nude pictures she speaks through her body. Howell sites Berger thus, "The women is not depicted because of her own sexuality. Indeed she is not supposed to be a sexual person herself. This explains why women were so often painted without pubic hair, because hair represented sexual power, which women were not supposed to have” (Howells, p.84). Shaking the establishment of male gendered world, Frida not only embraced her body with its flaws but with sheer rawness attacked the male spectatorship. Precisely, this is the reason why Frida painted her baby hair on upper lips to represent her reality rather reality of all women to the world. She does not paint herself as an epitome of beauty, meek, docile woman but hers is an unflattering self portrait. The Henry Ford Hospital painting is a cathartic experience with intertwined framework of pain and birth. Frida had suffered a miscarriage in 1932 in the Henry Ford Hospital. This painting represents symbolic, psychological, and physical wounds of Frida. She is laying naked on her back and is shown bleeding after the miscarriage. The bed and its sad inhabitant float in an abstract space circled by six images relating to the miscarriage. All of the images are tied to blood-red filaments that she holds against her stomach as if they were umbilical cords. The main image is a perfectly formed male fetus, little "Dieguito", she had longed to have. The orchid was a gift from Diego. The orchid was a gift from Diego. "When I painted it I had the idea of a sexual thing mixed with the sentimental" Frida said. The snail she said alludes to the slow paced miscarriage. The salmon pink plaster female torso she said was her "idea of explaining the insides of a woman". The cruel looking machine she invented "to explain the mechanical part of the whole business". Finally, in the lower right corner is her fractured pelvis that made it impossible for her to have children."Henry Ford Hospital" was Kahlo's first painting on tin. The painting contains all the basic elements of a "Frida style" ex-voto (retablo): small in size, painted on tin, depicts a tragic event and an inscription. The only not so obvious element is the "Saint" or "Savior". In this case it is the Henry Ford Hospital that saved her life. The depiction of pubic hair in the painting is to depict the real unclean, rawness and primitivism of female body. She does not show the unreal all clean female body fit for male gaze and sensationalism.
This counter discourse set by Frida is also important to understand that her paintings not only represent the world but also open vistas for analyzing the complex gender relations between the two sexes of human race embedded in all the cultures of the world. It does not imitate the real world but informs the viewer about the reality of the outside world through realistic portrayal of "Reality". Nudity in Frida’s paintings is not meant to titillate males but to show her body deformed and crippled by tragedy in her personal life or the reality of childbirth, the ugliness of female reproductive system, the queerness of female body organs. For her nudity is not decorative as was for her many predecessors, contemporaries and traditional view of Europeans. Nudity has a purpose to shake the viewer out of his illusions and inform him about the reality of a women's body. Therefore, Frida strived not to represent finesse in women but reality of patriarchal society. The process of dehumanizing shakes the dominant worldview of male viewer.
Frida Kahlo was immensely inspired by the Mexican revolution so much so that she changed her birth year from 1907 to 1910 so that it could coincide with the year of the revolution. She advocated for "Mexicanidad" rejecting Spain's culture under imperial rule and influence. Frida created nationalist image through artistic process. Kahlo adhered to Tehuana woman as part of her indigenous inklings, Tehuana woman being an iconic figure for women in Mexico to this day. The traditional Tehuana women use bright colors in clothing and elaborate head coverings. Since these native women enjoy equal status with men in their society, Frida was inspired by them. In her Thorn Necklace painting she wears a colorful head scarf. The frontal position and direct stare of Khalo’s face confronts and engages the viewer. She wears Christ’s unraveled crown of thorns as a necklace close to her bosom and piercing through it. The thorn necklace digs into her neck signifying herself representation as a Christian martyr enduring pain from her failed marriage. The ironic juxtaposition of Frida with Christ is that she is sacrificed not for humanity but is betrayed and metaphorically murdered in love. The humming bird as the medallion hangs at the centre though in Mexican folkloric tradition it is supposed to bring luck charms for falling in love. The black cat, symbolic of bad luck and death crouches behind her left shoulder. The spider and monkey gifted by Rivera are symbols of evil. Though Frida is a realist but uses symbols to express pain. Thus, being a woman ahead of her times she became a pioneer of sorts in her appropriation of folk and indigenous culture. As Howell writes “primitivism or tribal people culture as a cult of appropriation was generally omitted from Eurocentric histories of art” (Howell, p.72) In The Thorn Necklace painting the self-portrait is an outward reflection of Frida’s inner turmoil. The self portrait speaks to us about women condition and not just about the trial and tribulations in the life of Frida. Kahlo in the portrait stands out with clarity against the enormous flora and fauna. Yet, both are linked by juxtaposition, to establish contrast; the green tropical background and the traumatic white disturbing Frida in the forefront. This unity of contrasting background with upright forefront establishes the strength and balances the painting. Critics are often biased in their focus on the colorful and eventful life of Frida and by using it as a vantage point to study her paintings. The overarching personality of Rivera and the influence it had on Frida is overemphasized. However, I feel such an approach is reductive and stifling to analyze the iconic Frida. Frida had transcended the aura of the great Rivera to create her own space voicing for sisterhood for gender equality. Her The Thorn Necklace painting establishes her subject position and not as an object for male consumption.
The representation of reality in visual images underwent a drastic change with the establishment of movements like surrealism which depicted reality not in a linear manner but as an abstract mixture of real and surreal, what is obvious and what is hidden and intended by the painter. Thus, there was a shift from single linear perspective to non- linear view. The ‘stream of consciousness’ technique explains Kahlo’s self portrait in The Thorn Necklace painting. The inner workings of Frida’s mind and turbulences are evident. Stream of consciousness explains that mind is a myriad of emotions and thoughts travel in a non- linear motion back and forth from past to present to future and so on. Kahlo’s paintings are testimonies to this modernist view. She paints from her past life experiences. Similarly if looked from viewer’s perspective, seeing is also not a one way process but takes multiple paths to view reality present in images. The act of visualisation can be safely described as a two-fold experience; physical and apparent reality as seen by eyes at face value and second is a more socialised process governed by various social factors shaped by an individual’s culture.
Having discussed her paintings brings us to the significance of analysing visual images. Kahlo’s paintings do not merely reproduce reality but also create one. Multiple arenas of speculation are opened for viewers to understand gender relations, patriarchal influence in the society, the Mexican revolution, the turbulent times of world wars, undiscovered female body on. To quote Walker Chaplin, “We see certain pictures as realistic portrayals of the world and pictures can in turn influence the way we perceive reality”(Chaplin, p.23). So, visual culture visualises things which are explicitly stated but are implicitly working in societies. Kahlo achieved this beginning with paintings on Mexicanidad or nationalist goals to more revelatory paintings inspired by personal life to paintings on emancipation of woman as the subject ultimately transgressing both by representing women’s position. She painted reality by representing women with her faults and not with mere perfection. This makes Frida phenomena today. She is timeless defying constraints of time as well as subject matter.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS:
Alcántara, I. and Egnolff, S. (1999). Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Munich: Prestel.

Ankori, G., Dexter, E., Kahlo, F. and Wulfekamp, U. (2005). Frida Kahlo. [München]: Schirmer/Mosel [u.a.].

Sturken, M. and Cartwright, L. (2001). Practices of looking. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.

Fryer, n. (2006). mythical archetypes - anatomy of criticism. university of toronto press.
Jung, C. (1970). Four archetypes; mother, rebirth, spirit, trickster. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Howells, R. (2003) Visual Culture. Oxford: Polity Press.
Berger, J. (1972) Ways of Seeing. London: Penguin.
Walker, J. and Chaplin, S. (1997). Visual Culture: An Introduction. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.

WEBSITE:
Fridakahlofans.com, (2015). Henry Ford Hospital, Frida Kahlo, C0090. [online] Available at: http://www.fridakahlofans.com/c0090.html [Accessed 29 Feb. 2015].

JOURNAL:
Pankl, l. and Blake, K. (2012). Made In Her Image: Frida Kahlo as Material Culture. Material Culture, 44(2).