Frida Kahlo has frequently had her work analysed in terms of their emotional content, and there is no doubt that her traumatic life is reflected in her work. Yet, Kahlo's work does record more than her troubled marriage to the artist Diego Rivera, and the constant pain she felt as a result of a horrific accident on a street-car. It is evident that her work also reflected her strong sense of nationalism that was inherent in her political convictions.

Frida Kahlo was born in 1910 and grew up in the midst of the Mexican revolution and during the promotion of Mexicanidad. The revolution began on 20th November 1910, and there was a civil uprising against the dictator General Porifirio Diaz, who had govern Mexico for the previous 35 years. The revolution continued until 1920, despite a number of different leaders forming successive governments. In 1920 congressional elections elected General Obregon as president, and who established a socialist government. Obregon's government aimed to alter the existing social structure of Mexico by focusing on issues that concerned workers and peasants; people who had previously been ignored by government policies and exploited by landowners.

Inherent in this social reform was the promotion of "cultural nationalism" or Mexicanidad. By promoting "cultural nationalism", the indigenous art of Mexico and it's people, the government sought to re-establish Mexico's own identity.This came from a desire to be rid of the baggage of European culture that had been forced upon it's people with the Spanish conquest of Mexico, and furthered Napoleon III's invasion in the nineteenth century. The force of the Mexicanidad. had a great cultural effect, possibly because it was aided between 1921 and 1924 by the policies of Obregon's Education minister Jose Vasconcelos. His personal philosophy guided his policy-making, and whilst in government he promoted and supported the arts and the foundation of the Mexican Muralist movement. An understanding of this movement is essential if we are to place Frida Kahlo in a wider cultural context. The leading artists of the muralist movement were Diego Rivera, David Siquerios and Jose Clemente Orozco. These artist were commissioned by the state to paint the walls of public buildings, and so help shape the national spirit of post-revolutionary Mexico. These works also served to reflect, in an easily communicable form, the socialist ideals in creating an art for the proletariat, and to further promote the socialist government.

To return to Frida Kahlo's work, then, it is undeniable, as I said earlier, that her horrific accident (her spine was broken in seven places) and her troubled marriage to Diego Rivera were an obvious source for some of her work. However, there are also other influences that come to bear on her oeuvre. Through the frequent psychoanalytical approaches that have been applied to her work, with it's constant sifting through of personal reflections, much of the ideological impact has become suppressed or denuded. It is evident, I feel, that Kahlo used indigenous Mexican imagery to demonstrate her feelings towards political situations, such as the USA's attempts to intervene in Latin American countries. Kahlo also employed iconographic details of indigenous imagery to express the emotions that she felt. For example, her painting The Two Frida's(1939) is generally read as a painting that illustrates the emotions that she felt after her divorce from Rivera. Yet, it can not be denied that the imagery also depicts the dichotomy between the European and the Mexican. Kahlo depicts herself in Tehuana dress and in European dress, with both hearts exposed and outside of the her bodies. The two images are linked through held hands and an artery that joins the two hearts. The European Frida has an artery that has been cut with a pair of scissors that she holds and the blood pours onto her dress. The Tehuana dress is the national dress of the Zapotec women, and who form a matriarchal society. Thus, it could be argued, then, that the dress symbolises the freedom and economic independence of the Zapotec women, which is underlined by importance that it held to Kahlo herself. Helland argues that there is a link between Kahlo's use of the Tehuana dress when it is combined with Aztec imagery. The ancient Aztec society was the last powerful, though authoritarian, society that unified an area of the middle America's. Helland states that a combination of the Tehuana dress and the Aztec imagery: "corresponds to her own political demand for a unified, nationalistic and independent Mexico". Thus if we consider all the factors: the Aztec symbolism of the heart as the vital organ and source of life, and the severance from her European/Westernised self, we can discern a nationalistic text to which Kahlo adhered.

Kahlo, throughout her life, demonstrated a commitment to socialist beliefs, joining the communist party in 1928: just eleven days before her death she was campaigning against US intervention in Guatemala. As she never actively painted for the state on a commission basis, we can see the political nature of her work was clearly an expression of her own political views. In comparison, Rivera's work was largely commission based, and thus ideologically tied to those views that his patron sought to communicate.

To turn to her so-called Surrealist style, Kahlo herself stated: "They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn't. I never painted my dreams. I painted my reality." So, as Kahlo painted the events that related to her life and her view of it, she in turn reflected the currents events in Mexico. For example, in Self Portrait on the border between Mexico and the United States (1932) her opinion of the relationship between Mexico and the USA is evident. She again depicts herself in Tehuana dress, with, to her right, the USA, dominated by grey images of industry. Next to smoke-belching chimneys are skyscrapers, and by her feet, robotic structures. Contrasting with this image is the thriving vegetation and the Pre-Colombian sculptures that symbolise her nation and it's lineage. The message is clear: the USA equals commerce and the degradation it brings, and ultimately the threat it held to her country.

It seem, then, in light of these political elements evident in her work, that no simple account of her work is enough. The devices of surrealism and the psychological analysis of motifs do clearly go someway to unravel the layers of meaning in her work. However, if we shut the door to a reading based upon a fear on cultural or political dominance, we are never going to fully understand this woman's work.

Bibliography

Jean Franco Modern Culture of Latin America. Society and the Artist.

Janice Helland Aztec Imagery in Frida Kahlo's Paintings: Idigenity and Political Commitment.

Andrea Kettenmann Frida Kahlo. Pain and Passion.