Essay Sample on Frida Kahlo's Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird Self-Portrait (1940)

I am analyzing the form and content of a self-portrait with thorn necklace and a hummingbird that includes a monkey and a black cat which was painted in 1940 by a Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. This was done after she divorced from Diego Rivera and at the after ending the affair she had with photographer Nickolas Muray. Shortly after it was painted, Muray bought the portrait and is now part of the Nickolas Muray collection located at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. She began working on this painting while being bedridden due to a bus accident that left her seriously injured. Many of her paintings comprise of self-portraits, which directly represent her struggles with barrenness, medical problems, and her troubled marriage to Rivera (Sekar, 2018). For Kahlo, painting self-portraits was satisfying and always allowed her to create a new Frida on which to project her anguish and pain. This portraits of herself was a way for Kahlo to restore her body from gender conformity and medical problems.

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I argue that this artwork is about the autobiographical particulars of the life of Kahlo that is created in these works as well as her decorative hair, typical brows, and lively Mexican wear has made her a renowned person in Mexico and the United States of America. The small painting measuring approximately twenty-four by eighteen inches shows Kahlo in a front position and straight confronting the onlooker's stare from the image. Kahlo's daring eyebrows displays the emphasis on her face, as her throat gets strangled by a thorn necklace, sprawling downwards her chest like the roots of a tree. Looking vividly, there is also a tiny black hummingbird with its wings outspread, and from her throat, it hangs like a pendant. This woman is surrounded by animals and insects, forming the scene of a lush, but suffocatingly thick forest. Behind her right shoulder, there is a monkey that is seated with its eyes fixated on its hands, tugging at the hanging thorn necklace that is causing Kahlo to bleed. In mid-air above her head, two dragonflies float. With striking frost blue eyes, a black cat peers up from the flora above her left shoulder.

Frida Kahlo association with traditional Mexican heritage significantly influenced and affected the aesthetic of her painting. With the applications of great iconography originating from native Mexican heritage Kahlo puts herself in a rebellious culture against the male rule and colonial dictates. A good luck charm for people to fall in love in Mexican folktale is portrayed the dead hummingbird which slings down from her neck. Another different understanding is that the hummingbird pendant is a representation of the Aztec god of war popularly known as Huitzilopochtli. Similarly, bad luck is represented by the black panther, which is acts as a symbol of death, while evil is symbolized by the monkey. The natural-looking scenery that usually represents fertility differs with the deadly foreground imagery. Kahlo was given a gift of spider money by Rivera, which probably suggests it represents Rivera himself, especially because he is causing pain upon Kahlo by tugging the necklace thorn firmly enough making her bleed. Alternately the thorn made necklace could allude to Jesus Christ's crown of thorns, thereby relating her pain to a Christian martyr, while expressing the anguish and pain that she underwent after her unsuccessful romantic relationships. In line with this analysis, both the dragonflies and butterflies signify her resurrection.

In conclusion, I chose this self-portrait by Frida Kahlo because it is rich with imagery of her Aztec beliefs and native Mexican. This piece also has an adoring association with Mexican pre-Hispanic native origin. Finally, Frida Kahlo, with the use of her image, restores and negates the illusion women are objects of desire in a patriarchal tradition.

Reference

Sekar, A. (2018). Analisis Tingkatan Tanda dalam Karya Frida Kahlo "Self Potrait with

Necklace of Thorn and The Humming Bird". JURNAL RUPA, 2(1), 1. DOI: 10.25124/rupa.v2i1.751