In 1920, following a decade of a civil war, the Mexican revolution overturned a dictatorship and emerged as a constitutional republic. Mexicanidad emerged as a way of establishing a new modern national identity.
The Portland Art Museum (PAM) in Portland, Oregon had a special exhibit on Mexican Modernism. According to the display:
“Mexicanidad, a political and populist movement that developed following the revolution, blended agrarian and Indigenous traditions with the anti-colonialist sentiment that fought for independence from Spain one hundred years earlier. As key members of the revolutionary movement, artists captured this vision in murals, paintings, prints, and photographs.”
With regard to the artists of Mexican Modernism:
“They experimented with style and imagery and actively contributed to the creation of narratives linking Indigenous and mestizo cultures to the founding of the new modern nation. Aware of the global movement of modernism—which stressed innovation in form, a tendency towards abstraction, and an emphasis on materials and process—Mexican modernists turned to ancient artworks as models for abstraction and as guides for figurative realism.”
One of the key leaders of the Mexican Modernism art movement was Frida Kahlo (1907-1954). Kahlo was of mixed parentage: her father was German and her mother was Spanish and Indigenous Tehuana from Oaxaca, Mexico. According to the Museum display:
“The Tehantepec region was matrilineal and women held power with families, society, and the marketplace. Kahlo celebrated this alternative to the Mexican patriarchal system and consciously constructed a mestiza persona through her hairstyles and clothing choices. She created a blended identity, simultaneously appropriating and reclaiming her cultures by pairing colonial Spanish jewlry with traditional hiuipil blouses or Chanel haute couture with an Indigenous jade necklace.”
According to PAM:
“Today we admire Kahlo as a revolutionary artist and feminist, yet her strength grew through physical and emotional adversity. She lived with the lingering effects of childhood polio and in 1925 narrowly escaped death in a horrific bus accident that shattered her pelvis and spine. During her long convalescence, art became fa path for survival and self-expression. The difficult circumstances of her health and disability instilled in her a resolve.”
According to PAM:
“Due to the injuries she suffered in a bus accident, Kahlo was unable to bear children and fulfill the traditional role of Mexican womanhood: to be a dutiful wife and mother. She defied gendered expectations and found resilience living an independent life as an artist and activist.”
Self-Portraits
According to the display:
“Kahlo made several small paintings on metal, referencing the ex-voto tradition that dates to the seventeenth century in Mexico. Such votice offerings are often associated with folk art, created to thank deities for favors or miracle.”
Art
Wardrobe
According to the Museum display:
“Frida Kahlo wore a distinctive and vibrant wardrobe tied closely to her identity, both culturally and artistically. Derived from traditional garments throughout Mexico, Kahlo’s clothes celebrated her cultural and historical ties.”
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