Frida, Self-portrait dedicated to Leon Trotsky, 1937 by Natasja Tollenaar

About "Frida, Self-portrait dedicated to Leon Trotsky, 1937"

by Natasja Tollenaar

About the artwork

Like many of Frida's paintings, 'Self-portrait dedicated to Leon Trotsky' focuses on a particular event in the artist's life. It commemorates the brief affair Kahlo had with exiled Russian revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky, shortly after his arrival in Mexico in 1937. In this painting, she presents herself elegantly dressed in a long embroidered skirt, fringed scarf and delicate gold jewellery. Flowers and strands of red yarn adorn her hair and skilfully applied make-up accentuates her features. Kahlo is poised and confident in her stage-like setting, holding a bouquet of flowers and a dedication letter to Trotsky that reads "with all my love. Kahlo, like many Mexican artists working after the revolutionary decade that began in 1910, was influenced in her art and life by the nationalist fervour known as Mexicanidad. The artists involved in this movement rejected European influences and favoured a return to the country's indigenous roots and folk traditions. Kahlo often wore the distinctive clothing of the Tehuantepec women of southwestern Mexico; she also looked to pre-Columbian art and Mexican folk art for forms and symbols in her paintings. For example, the compositional elements of the stage and curtains are based on paintings in the Mexican vernacular called retablos, devotional images of the Virgin or Christian saints painted on tin, which Kahlo collected.

Magdalena Carmen Frida y Calderón (Coyoacán, Mexico, 6 July 1907 - 13 July 1954) was a Mexican surrealist painter.

Frida's work is characterised by cheerful colours, but contrasted with an alienating atmosphere. She did not shy away from controversy.