What The Water Gave Me Analysis

Born to a photographer and a housewife, Kahlo grew up in the small, Mexican city of Coyoacán. With no original aspiration to become an artist, a series of unfortunate events would shape and mold her into becoming one of the best surrealists of her time, and arguably ever. What the Water Gave Me (see Appendix A), also known as What I Saw in the Water is one of the most renowned pieces by artist, Frida Kahlo for it’s usage of symbolism which gives the viewer insight into much of Frida’s personal life including: her family,political views, and sexual orientation. Frida paints both her mother and father in the painting, in a manner which resembles another work entitled, My Grandparents, My Parents, and I(see Appendix B), a piece about the dynamics and structure of her family. The history of Kahlo’s birth date and family lineage is one cloaked in mystery and skepticism.Kahlo claimed Hungarian history, but it has been revealed that her father actually came from a long line of German Lutherans. …show more content…
What the piece lacks in traditional beauty, it makes up for in gritty detail and emotional storytelling. Kahlo never considered herself to be a surrealist painter nor her work surrealist pieces because her painting came from her own reality and truth. Kahlo painted dualities that she knew best, life vs death, heartache vs love, her Mexican heritage and her European heritage that she was so proud of. Frida painted for much more than outlet of self expression, while it was important to get all of her feelings out Kahlo’s painted also acted as tools to the communist movement, a task she was more than happy with carrying out. Kahlo never conformed to social standards in her paintings, or in real life and did what very few people dared to do- be openly bisexual and reference this in her paintings with love scenes between two women. Art was an important part in Frida’s love up until the very day she committed suicide in