Visual Rhetoric in the Self-portraits of Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo, leading Mexican artist, inspired by the folk culture of her hometown, created a personal, indigenous and naive style to portray her concerns about identity, gender, class, race and post-colonial status. Her works depict the story of her life, as well as narrating the lifestyle of women of her era. Frida’s works are deep, multi-layered, symbolic and rich in hidden meanings. Therefore, it’s not possible to discover the connotations of her signs at a glance, unaware of her cultural context and lived experience. The author has used the method of visual rhetoric analysis, to achieve the meanings of these paintings. This research perspective, is a useful way to unravel the hidden connections between images and semiotic systems. The current research is a case study in the field of visual semiotics, with a descriptive-analytical approach. Of the 143 known paintings by Frida Kahlo, 55 examples are self-portraits. Of these, 8 works have been selected by targeted sampling, to be analyzed for the discovery of rhetorical tropes and encoding methods in Frida’s work. Frida believed in Mexicanidad, a nationalist and romantic movement to counter the humiliation of the indigenous Mexican culture by the Spaniards. Thus, in many of her works, she represents ancient rituals, Aztec myths and popular culture. In contrast to the patriarchal tradition of female objectification in artwork, she always stares at the viewer of her self-portraits with a strong and excavator gaze. According to Kenneth Burke, the most important rhetorical tropes are the four main tropes of metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony. Among these, Frida has used metaphor in self-portraits such as The Dream (1940). In this work, the skeleton is a metaphor for death and Frida herself is depicted as a metaphor for life. Also, in another painting, The Wounded Deer (1946), Frida depicts the deer as a metaphor for her past and her sufferings. Metonymy can be found in a work called Two Fridas (1939). In this painting, European clothing is metonymy for modernity, Tehuana is metonymy for tradition, and scissors are metonymy for patriarchy. Also, in a work called Thinking About Death (1943), the artist’s forehead is metonymy for thinking, and the skull is metonymy for dying. Synecdoche can be seen in Self-Portrait Along the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States (1932). Ford complex, skyscrapers, industrial products and the flag, each are synecdoche for the US or the modern world. On the other hand, the Aztec temple, ancient fertility statues, and pristine nature are synecdoche for Mexico or the pre-modern world. Also, in another work called Roots (1943), the piece of land on which Frida sleeps, can be considered as synecdoche for her homeland and birthplace. In My dress hangs there (1933), Frida brings together the values and symbols that are the pride of the US, but in fact, she ironically mocks the cultural signs of this country. She also uses irony in Memory (1937). Cupid, the Greek symbol of love and affection, is used in this work to portray suffering from tragic love.