In the work of Frida Kahlo, again we see some of the same themes. Frida uses herself very often as a model, yet in her paintings, she is not expressing an everywoman view, but exploring deeply her own self. Yet, like Sherman, and Xuiwen, Kahlo’s self-portraits show her with a calm, impassive expression. If you want insight into her personality, you look at her vibrant use of color and symbolism. Like Xuiwen and Sherman, Kahlo is always painted alone, seeming isolated, and perhaps trapped inside her own painful emotions. She exposes her vulnerability in those portraits that graphically strip bare the sources of her pain, such as her miscarriage. The graphic nature of some of Kahlo’s work recalls the horror-movie quality of Cindy Sherman’s Fairytale series. Frida Kahlo was also concerned with her physical appearance, as she is mostly dressed in elaborate Mexican clothing and hairstyles, with bright red lips, but for her, this is an expression of her heritage.
Like a couple of Cindy Sherman’s portraits, Frida Kahlo used devices like tears on her calm face to show her pain and hurt. In her portrait of herself and her husband, Frida shows how she feels about her place in the world as a women. Though she herself is a painter also, and has the support of her husband in her endeavors, she paints him holding a palette and brushes, and her with none. Perhaps she sees her efforts as less worthy than his, or she feels that to be a proper wife, at that time, she should not put herself forward. She is in a submissive, meek pose. She loved her husband, yet painted mostly herself alone, not many portraits of him. Is this because she had other love interests as well? Or that he was busy, and left her alone often, so she had no choice? Perhaps this is why she looks so stoic, and yet from her use of symbols, and her occasional gory revelation paintings, she shows us all the hurt and fear inside.