On Feminism: Amanda Holcombe

While flitting thought all the prurient depictions of breast and vaginas in Women Artists in the 20^th and 21^st Century, I realized that there are few feminist and female artists who do not claim their sexual exploration as art. Frida Kahlo is one of these artists who chose to use her body differently than many feminist artists have in the past century.

Kahlo’s life was a short, seemingly agonizing life. Having experienced many health problems and accidents throughout her life, Kahlo’s work portrays and explores the mental and physical suffering that went along with her many surgeries, various amputations and multiple miscarriages. Considering that Kahlo never had any formal training in any type of art, her oil paintings are remarkably detailed and many of them dreamlike in style. Most of her work is self-portraits, which she said was “because she spent so much time alone and was the subject matter she knew best”. The self-portrait which grabs my attention most is The Broken Column. She compellingly depicts herself crying in a steal corset, a broken column representing her impaired spine, and nails put into her skin all over her body. Despite the fact that most of her pieces do have this dreamy, surrealistic style, Kahlo claimed that she never painted dreams, but portrayed her own reality.

Because her style echoes surrealism, I’m not sure that one should call her a feminist artist. However I chose her work because I find that it has more depth and power than many of the feminist artisst I came across. I believe her work to be more powerful because unlike many feminist artists, she goes beyond salacious portrayals of sex and the woman's body, and instead seeks to understand the pain her body and mind suffered from throughout her life by painting.

Resource: Women Artists of the 20^th and 21^st Century, edited by Uta Grosenick

The Broken Column (la columna rota), 1944. Oil on Canvas, mounted on hardboard, 40x31 cm