Frida Kahlo Broken Column

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There are many feminist icons throughout history, but there are two in particular that have established themselves as iconic artists as well. Georgia O’Keeffe and Frida Kahlo have used their artistic platforms to represent their ideals and spread their messages in an unconventional way, perhaps one that isn’t so blatant and upfront. Specifically, artwork is conceivably one of the utmost interpretive aspects of history for us to reflect on, in that it embodies so many facets of the time period it originates from.
There is one painting that in particular that powerfully represents the feminist aspect in the 20th century perfectly. Created by Frida Kahlo, The Broken Column is an outstanding piece of artwork crafted out of oil on Masonite. Kahlo decided to use a color palette that was decently limited as mostly using warmer colors. These colors that Kahlo is frequently using are broken up by cooler tones mostly in the sky that is having the audience pull their view right to Kahlo’s figure.
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Kahlo used painting as a means of discovering the authenticity of her own body as her realization of its vulnerability. The Broken Column clearly shoes Kahlo dealing with an immense amount of pain. The white straps portrayed around her torso are depicting the back brace Kahlo had to wear and with nails embedded all over her body to signify that everything had to be put back into place. This self-portrait exemplifies many elements that were in a lot of Kahlo’s artwork, including the themes of loneliness, a broken body and severe pain and suffering. The Broken Column is tied to feminism by exploding Kahlo’s female experiences and giving it to the public. Kahlo’s paintings may seem disturbing at first, but they represent the challenges of being a

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