Kahlo's "Broken Column",analysis

Today we are going to take a look at Frida Khao’s work titled “The Broken Column or Spine”.
We are going to evoke her life, then we are going to look at the painting in both its physical and artistic form, and finally we are going to give you an idea of what we felt when we saw the painting.
Frida Khao was born on the 6th of July, 1907 in the city of Coyoacán, Mexico. She was very young when she contracted a rare disease known as poliomyeloelitis.
She was 18 years old when she was hit in a bus accident. The spinal and pelvis injuries were severe enough that she was unable to have a full-term pregnancy.
She went on to have two more miscarriages. She met Diego Riviera in 1928 and married him in 1929. However, in 1935 she found out that her sister had been having a secret affair with her husband, which was part of a series of deceits. She divorced him in 1935, but later remarried him in 1940. Due to her poor health and heart problems, Frida discovered a love for painting.
Let's now take a look at Frida's painting "The Broken Column". Frida's "The Broken Column" is painted in oil paint on canvas in a small format of 40 x 34 cm. It's a self portrait because it's about Frida herself. Frida stands in the foreground, her hair is black, her face is expressionless, her tears are streaming down her face. Her body is open in the center, revealing a stone column that has been broken many times. She is wearing a corset, her bust is exposed, a fabric obscures her lower body, and nails of various sizes are stitched all over her body. The larger nail is placed on her heart. We can see in the background a desert with craters. This stone column was used in Antiquity to support monuments. In this painting, Frida wants to show us that if her backbone is broken, her world will collapse. She also wants to let us know that she needs some form of support, the corset is the only element she needs. The nails on her body are the physical pain from her accident.   In addition, the nail in her heart symbolizes both physical pain as well as moral pain. In fact, from our perspective, moral pain is the result of her husband’s continuous lies and her pregnancy troubles. In spite of her pain, she holds her head high: she looks dignified, she stands tall, but tears of pain spring from her unsympathetic eyes. In addition, the desert in which she painted herself inspires loneliness. When we first saw the painting, we empathized with Frida K AHLO. After analyzing the painting, we felt sad as we realized the darkest aspects of the self-portrait?
© Gerard Van Weyenbergh