Shop art print and framed art La colonne brisée by Frida Kahlo

The Broken Column is an oil painting on canvas mounted on Isorel measuring 39.8 × 30.7 centimetres, produced in 1944 by the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. It is kept in Mexico City at the Dolores Olmedo Museum. Kahlo produced the work after undergoing spinal surgery for injuries sustained in a bus accident in 1925, forcing her to wear a steel corset that caused her intense pain. With its surrealist aesthetic, the work is a half-naked self-portrait of the author, with a fragmented ionic column as a spine running across her torso, which is held in place by an orthopaedic corset. Her waist is covered in a white drape and dozens of nails are hammered into her face and body. Her three-quarter face is covered in white tears. The background shows a desert landscape with green cracks in the ground and a blue sky. The work is interpreted as a symbol of the pain the artist felt throughout her body as a result of her injuries. Kahlo uses the nails in her work as a sign of physical pain and her constant, stoic relationship with it. Tears stream down her face, which expresses no painful expression, signifying her determination to face up to her condition. The composition of the work and the white drapery refer to the iconography of Christian martyrs and the resurrection of Christ. The drape covering her lower abdomen evokes her infertility. The arid landscape in the background refers to the desolation and solitude felt by the author at the [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the modern period. It belongs to the surrealism style.

 

Find the full description of La colonne brisée by Frida Kahlo on Wikipedia.