Memory, the Heart
Memory, the Heart, a 1937 painting by the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, depicts the pain and anguish Kahlo experienced during and after an affair between her husband, artist Diego Rivera, and her sister, Cristina Kahlo.
The painting is sometimes known by the title Recuerdo (Memory).[1] The oil-on-metal work measures 40 x 28 cm, and is held in the collection of Michel Petitjean in Paris, France.
Description
Kahlo portrays herself standing on a beach by the water's edge, one foot on the sand and one in the sea, looking towards the viewer with an expressionless face covered in tears. A metal rod goes through a large empty space in her chest. The rod has an image of Cupid at each end, shown as if riding a seesaw. Frida's heart is represented by a large bleeding mutilated organ lying outside her body. The blood from the heart seeps into the sand and flows into the sea. Two dresses, one a schoolgirl dress, the other her traditional Tehuantepec-style costume, hang near Frida; not empty, they contain one human arm apiece. The schoolgirl dress arm reaches for but does not touch Frida, while the arm in the Tehuana dress supports the armless and immobile artist.
These symbols and others in the painting show the artist's immense pain, and her personal emotional damage and rebuilding, resulting from the affair between her sister and husband.[2][3]
See also
References
External links
- Memory, the Heart at fridakahlofans.com, which contains another picture of the painting.
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- Self-portrait in a Velvet Dress (1926)
- Frieda and Diego Rivera (1931)
- Henry Ford Hospital (1932)
- My Dress Hangs There (1933)
- Memory, the Heart (1937)
- Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky (1937)
- The Frame (1938)
- Self-Portrait with Monkey (1938)
- The Suicide of Dorothy Hale (1938)
- What the Water Gave Me (1938)
- The Two Fridas (1939)
- Two Nudes in a Forest (1939)
- Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird (1940)
- The Wounded Table (1940)
- The Broken Column (1944)
- The Wounded Deer (1946)
- Self Portrait with Loose Hair (1947)
- Diego and I (1949)
- The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Myself, Diego, and Señor Xolotl (1949)
- Frida Still Life (1983 film)
- Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo (1983)
- Frida (1991 opera)
- Diego et Frida (1993 biography)
- Frida (2002 film)
- Broken Wings (2016 ballet)
- Frida (2024 film)
- The History of Mexico (1935 mural)
- Pan American Unity (1940 mural)
- Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Central (1947 mural)
- Cradle Will Rock (1999 film)
- Coco (2017 animated film)
- Frida Kahlo Home and Museum
- Diego Rivera (husband)
- Cristina Kahlo (sister)
- Guillermo Kahlo (father)
- Museo Dolores Olmedo