Paintings Of Frida Kahlo And Degas

By Darren Hartley


Best remembered for their pain and passion, Frida Kahlo paintings are known for their intense and vibrant colors. Mexicans celebrate them as emblematic of national and indigenous tradition while feminists praise them for their uncompromising depiction of the female experience and form.

Categorized as Naive art or folk art, Frida Kahlo paintings feature Mexican culture and Amerindian cultural tradition prominently. They are also described as surrealist. In 1938, Frida was described as being a ribbon around a bomb by a bonafide surrealist artist.

Frida was never ashamed to reflect her lifelong health problems in her works. As a matter of fact, half of the Frida Kahlo portraits are self portraits of one sort or another. She was born a bitch and a painter, according to her. The rationale for these self portraits came from Frida herself, her being alone more often than not and her knowing herself best, making herself the best model for her own paintings.

Edgar Degas calls himself as either a realist or independent, despite Degas paintings receiving the label of being impressionistic in style. The fleeting moments in the flow of modern life is what Edgar sought to capture in his work.

However, he showed little interest in painting plein air landscapes. Degas paintings favoured theatre and cafe scenes illuminated by artificial light, clarifying the contours of figures, in total adherence to an academic training.

In recognition oh his son's artistic gifts, Edgar's father took him frequently to Paris museums as a way of encouraging his efforts at drawing. This resulted to early Degas paintings being copies of Italian renaissance paintings at the Louvre.

Starting in the studio of Louis Lamothe, Edgar was trained in the traditional academic style. This style put emphasis on line and insisted on the crucial importance of draftsmanship. Also strongly influencing Degas paintings were paintings and frescoes seen during long Italian trips in the late 1850s. These paintings and frescoes were recorded in Edgar's personal notebook in the form of sketches and drawings.




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