My Personal Reflections, Interpretations of Paintings and Review of: Frida Kahlo The Last Interview and Other Conversations
Written by Safa Alhassan
Frida Kahlo’s interviews in this book feel like intimate conversations. The way she talked was just as lively and direct as her paintings. She spoke without holding back, saying whatever came to her mind. Kahlo could be hilarious, rude, and even swear like a mariachi. She had a way of expressing herself that was shockingly honest. And just like her conversations, her paintings could shock you too. To enhance my understanding of Frida Kahlo's life, I've supplemented the book with images of her paintings. This allows me to visualize her artwork alongside the descriptions. I have also given my analyses of these beautiful pieces. Some paintings really stand out to me, and I want to learn more about her work. By looking at her art and reading about it, I was able to see her feelings and experiences through her paintings and it helped me understand what each one means. I also came to a realization that her work is very complex. I look foward to continuing my journey and exploring more of her amazing artwork, moving foward.
Frida's paintings are deeply personal, full of pain, and often bloody. You might even feel the need to look away before you fully take them in. Her artwork leaves a lasting impression on our minds and eyes. That's why people worldwide connect with her art. She has become an iconic figure, admired globally. This book review highlights some of the paintings of Frida Khalo I find very interesting.
I've broken it down and simplified the book for you, so you can understand these paintings better, just like I did. While reading this book, I also discovered something new about myself. I really enjoy interpreting artworks. Who would’ve thought? The thrill of trying to decode what the artist was thinking is something I’ve come to love. With this one, I especially enjoyed how complex it was, pushing me to look beyond the surface. It made me realize how subjective art really is, and now I’m wondering, do these works even have a definitive meaning? The artist is both the writer and the creator, which is just mind-blowing. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
A Portrait of Frida KahloThe book Frida Kahlo: The Last Interview and Other Conversations is such a powerful read. Hayden Herrera’s introduction is exceptional, and it sets the stage by detailing Frida’s life, from her childhood to her marriage with Diego Rivera, and eventually her death. It’s inspiring to see her drive, but at the same time, it's heartbreaking knowing what she went through, especially since these events shaped why she painted. “I paint my own reality,” Frida once said, and this couldn’t be more true. Her art and her life are so connected that you can’t separate the two. Her work has been called an autobiography in paint because she charges real-life moments with so much emotion and imagination, making them feel more real than real. It’s the reason her art touches people all over the world. She has become an international cult figure, and her home, the Blue House, is now the wildly popular Frida Kahlo Museum. Her fans visit it like it’s some sort of temple.
Frida KahloFrida, or Freda as her friends called her, was born in 1907 in Coyoacán, Mexico. Her mother was Mexican of mixed Indian and Spanish descent, and her father, a professional photographer, was a German immigrant. She started painting at sixteen after a serious accident left her bedridden for months. From the very beginning, painting became a way for her to express her pain and hold on to people. Her paintings tell intense stories about her life, and what I found most interesting is how she mixes humor into them. At the same time, some of her work left me in tears, especially seeing how she tried to communicate her loneliness. One painting that stood out for me was My Birth from 1932. It’s one of the bravest images I’ve ever seen. It shows her naked mother from the perspective of the midwife, but the mother’s head is covered with a sheet because Frida’s mom had passed away while Frida was working on the painting. The baby emerging from the womb also looks dead, which is deeply unsettling, and above this whole scene is a painting of the Madonna of Sorrows, crying and pierced by daggers.
Frida’s life story continues in My Nurse and I (1937). Here, Frida is shown lying in the arms of her Indian wet nurse because her mother couldn’t breastfeed her, as her sister Cristina was born shortly after. In this painting, Frida gives herself the body of an infant but the head of an adult because she doesn’t remember her nurse’s face. Frida has said this was her favorite work, and I get why. She came out looking so small, and her nurse was so strong and filled with a sense of providence that it made Frida long to sleep. This painting also shows her deep connection with nature and her pride in her native roots, but the masked nurse still gives off this vibe of cold detachment. Kahlo transformed the traditional image of the Madonna nursing Christ into a reflection of her lifelong feelings of separation and loss.
Then there’s My Grandparent, My Parents and Me (1936). In this piece, Frida, as a three-year-old, stands naked in the patio of her family’s Blue House, holding a ribbon that links her family tree. Above her are her parents, whose portraits are taken from their wedding photo. Her German grandparents float on a cloud above her father, and her Mexican grandparents hover over her mother. And of course, Frida added her usual witty touch. On her mother’s wedding dress, she paints herself as a fetus, right below the moment of her conception. It’s kind of hilarious that Frida turned a family tree into a triple self-portrait. Even the plant next to Frida’s conception is throwing out seeds.
My Grandparents, My Parents and Me, 1936 by Frida Kahlo.Many of Frida’s paintings show her as a child, vulnerable and alone in a big, empty landscape. When she was seven, she got polio and was stuck in her room for months. This loneliness pushed her into a world of fantasy. By drawing a circle with her breath on the window, she would escape to an imaginary underworld and meet a make-believe friend. Her father helped her get better by encouraging her to exercise. When Frida recovered, she tried to hide her weak right leg by wearing many socks. But kids teased her, saying, "Frida Kahlo Pata de Palo!" ("Frida Kahlo Peg Leg!") This cruelty made Frida feel even more isolated and different. During this time, she grew closer to her father, who was often sick like her and had frequent epileptic seizures. They formed a bond, and Frida even helped him during his photography jobs. He once said, “Frida is the most intelligent of my daughters. She is the most like me.”
A Portrait of Frida Kahlo At fifteen, Frida got into the prestigious National Preparatory School in Mexico City, where she was one of only thirty five girls in a school of about two thousand. There, she became part of a group of boys called “The Cachuchas,” known for being mischievous and brilliant. Her personal prank target was Diego Rivera, who was painting a mural at the school. She once soaped the steps leading to where he was working, hoping he’d slip, but he never did. Instead, a professor fell. She also teased him when he was working with nude models, shouting things like, “Watch out Diego, Lupe is coming!”as if Rivera was about to be caught in some compromising embrace with another model. (Lupe Marín was soon to become Rivera’s second wife.) Kahlo’s schoolmates were horrified when she told them that her ambition in life was to have a child by Diego Rivera. I found this a little unsettling. Perhaps she saw her father in him, or for some weird reason she was just attracted to him. He wasn't particularly prince charming. Again, maybe she felt they had something in common.
When Frida was eighteen, she got into a bus accident with her boyfriend, Alejandro, that left her body shattered. Doctors didn’t think she would survive. Her spine was broken in three places, her right leg had eleven fractures, her right foot was crushed and a metal handrail pierced her groin. She had about thirty surgeries in her lifetime after that. “In this hospital,” Frida wrote to her boyfriend Alejandro, “death dances around my bed at night.” Death would continue to dance around Frida. While recovering in bed, her mother had an easel made so Frida could paint lying down. “I am disintegration,” she wrote in her diary above an image of her disintegrating self.
Her first works were portraits of family and friends, but the real shift came after her accident when she started painting more intensely, especially self-portraits. Frida Kahlo learned to walk again, but with a slight limp. In a self-portrait, she painted herself from the waist up against a dark background. Like a photo her father took, she turns her head to the right, with one arm crossed over her body. The portrait is romantic and longing, reflecting her emotional state. Her boyfriend, Alejandro, was drifting away from her at the time. Frida's eyes, under her joined eyebrows, seem to ask a question. Her large hand reaches out, as if seeking comfort and asking the viewer to hold it. These pieces reflected her physical and emotional pain, but also her longing.
Frida and Diego got married in 1929, and her father wasn’t thrilled at first, warning Diego that Frida would always be sick. However, he accepted the marriage, likely because Diego could cover Frida’s medical bills. Frida’s mother, on the other hand, hated the idea. She called their union “the marriage of an elephant and a dove,” which wasn’t far from the truth. Frida was brilliant and witty, but Diego was a known philanderer, which caused Frida a lot of pain. She had an abortion because her unborn baby was in a dangerous position. She wrote, "We couldn't have a child, and I cried endlessly."
To cope with her sadness, she kept busy cooking, cleaning, and painting. She also spent time with her husband, Diego Rivera, bringing him lunch on the scaffold where he worked. This made him happy. But Frida had more reasons to cry. Diego continued cheating on her, and despite trying to be understanding, it hurt her deeply. Frida once said, “I suffered two grave accidents in my life: one in which a streetcar knocked me down... The other accident is Diego.” She kept working through the heartbreak and painted Frida and Diego Rivera (1931), a sort of wedding portrait that shows their marriage with a hint of problems. The portrait seems happy at first glance, but it also suggests underlying issues when you look closer. Diego is shown as the master artist, holding a palette, while Frida stands beside him, smaller and loving. His large feet are firmly grounded, while her decorated slippers barely touch the ground. Although Frida reaches out to hold his hand, Diego's head is turned away.
Frida knew she couldn't fully have Diego to herself. "He never surrenders himself," she said. "He never was nor ever will be mine. He belongs to himself." She also said, "Being the wife of Diego is the most marvelous thing in the world…I let him play matrimony with other women. Diego is not anybody's husband and never will be, but he is a great comrade."
Despite her heartache, Frida continued painting. In a 1933 interview with The Detroit News, when asked if she learned from Diego, she cheekily responded, “I didn’t study with Diego, I didn't study with anyone. I just started to paint.” Her eyes sparkled with amusement. And when the reporter got serious, she laughed it off, adding that while Diego was a “little boy” in painting, she was the “big artist.” That’s Frida’s charm. She didn’t let anyone take her lightly. According to the interviewer, when you grow serious she mocks you and laughs again. But Senora Rivera’s painting is by no means a joke: because, however much she may laugh when you ask her about it, the fact remains that she has acquired a very skillful and beautiful style, painting in the small with miniature-like technique which is as far removed from the heroic figures of Rivera as could well be imagined. Thus, while her husband paints with large brushes on a huge wall surface, his wife, herself a miniature-like little person with her long black braids wound demurely about her head and a foolish little ruffled apron over her black silk dress in lieu of a smock, chooses a small metal panel and paints with tiny camel-hair brushes.
Frida’s longing for a child became an obsession. Her inability to carry a pregnancy to term haunted her, and this sadness is reflected in many of her paintings. The most striking of these is the self-portrait dealing with childbirth, where she poured her sorrow into her art. I found it so painful and heartbreaking to read about how she suffered through miscarriages and kept painting her agony.
By the 1930s, Frida had begun to embrace her identity as a Mexican artist, rejecting labels like “Surrealist” that others tried to stick on her. She painted as she lived; spontaneously and with brutal honesty. She painted accidents, death, and her deepest longings, but she always injected humor and wit into her sadness. From this point on, many of Frida Kahlo's paintings conveyed her grief over being unable to have children. She often depicted herself with pets like cats, dogs, parrots, and monkeys. Even her still-life paintings and lush tropical backgrounds hinted at her longing for fertility. The monkeys, especially, seemed to symbolize substitute children, yet their wild nature hinted at underlying tension and complexity. These artworks revealed Frida's deep emotional pain and her conflicted feelings about motherhood.
Frida Kahlo's story continues with her intense homesickness. Diego Rivera wanted to stay in the US, believing a Marxist revolution would happen there. In December 1933, they sailed back to Mexico. Rivera was unhappy and blamed Frida for leaving New York. His health was poor, and he was depressed and not working. Frida's health also suffered; she had her appendix removed, lost another child, and underwent foot surgery. To make matters worse, Rivera started an affair with Frida's younger sister, Cristina. This betrayal devastated Frida, and the couple separated for months. Frida barely painted for two years. In 1935, she created A Few Small Nips, a powerful painting about a brutal murder. A man stands over his stabbed girlfriend, dagger in hand. The image is based on a true story that Frida found both heartbreaking and darkly funny. She told a friend she painted this scene because she felt "murdered by life." Earlier, she had written, "I believe that by working, I will forget the sorrows" (November 1934).
With time, Frida forgave her sister and husband. In July 1935, she wrote to Rivera, "At bottom, you and I love each other dearly... I love you more than my own skin." Years later, Frida reflected on her pain and painted Memory and Remembrance of an Open Wound. In these works, she depicted her inner turmoil. In Memory, she stands armless, divided between land and water, with a wounded foot and bleeding heart. Cupids play on the metal rod piercing her chest.
In Remembrance of an Open Wound, her foot is bandaged, and she reveals a gash on her thigh, symbolizing her wounded sexuality.
This painting is one of my favorites. It's different, gentle, and delicate, yet fierce, troubling, and bold. Frida Kahlo's artworks often express two opposing emotions simultaneously, reflecting her complex personality. I just keep wondering how she's able to show all of that in her work. It's amazing. This reminds me of an interview from the book, where André Breton described her paintings as "a ribbon around a bomb" in a 1938 New Yorker interview. She's beautiful yet complex.
In 1939, Frida and Diego Rivera divorced, likely due to her affair with Leon Trotsky. Rivera claimed the separation was amicable, but later admitted he wanted freedom to pursue other women. During their divorce, Frida created powerful self-portraits. The Two Fridas (1939) shows her sitting beside herself, holding hands. Frida explained, "Painting myself twice represents my loneliness... I sought my own help." The Tehuana-clad Frida (Rivera's loved version) holds a miniature portrait of Diego, while the Victorian-dressed Frida (unloved) tries to stop bleeding from their shared heart.
Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair (1939) is another painting i find very interesting from her divorce year. Here she had also cut her long hair like she did back then when Rivera had his affair with her sister Cristina. She cut off her long hair and stopped wearing the Tehuana costume that Rivera loved. In this painting, she appears wearing a suit so large that it must be Rivera’s, and she holds the scissors that did the cutting as if she intends to continue destroying her femininity. Like the dripping blood in The Two Fridas, the shorn locks refuse to lie still. In Kahlo’s self-portraits, there is no physical movement, but the paintings almost explode with rage and sorrow. With her typical black humor, Kahlo has turned her tragedy into an illustration of a popular song: “You see if I loved you it was for your hair. Now that you are bald I don’t love you anymore.”
Frida's self-portraits convey rage and sorrow, despite static poses. Her black humor transforms tragedy into art. During this period, Frida's spinal issues worsened, requiring three months of traction. Rivera arranged for her to join him in San Francisco for medical care.
Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera got remarried in San Francisco, but after that, they went back to Mexico separately. The problems in their relationship didn’t change with the remarriage. Diego kept being unfaithful, and as shown in paintings like "Self-Portrait as a Tehuana" (1943), Frida still wanted to possess him, even though she once said she believed that the "banks of the river should let the water run free."
In 1949, when Diego threatened to leave her again because he wanted to marry a famous movie star named María Felix, Frida painted Diego and I. In that painting, you can see her calm face almost breaking apart, and her loose hair swirling around her neck shows the inner chaos she was feeling but trying to hide.
In the end, Diego didn’t leave Frida. She painted The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Diego, Me and Sr. Xolotl, which included one of her beloved hairless dogs. In the painting, Frida is holding Diego like a baby, and even though her chest is cracked open and she’s crying, it’s meant to be a symbol of love. Frida is in the center, like a Madonna holding her baby Diego. The love between them is shown through a series of embraces, and Frida seemed to realize that the way to hold onto Diego was to treat him like a child. She once said, “Women… including me, always wanted to hold him like a newborn baby.”
Starting in the mid-1940s, Frida had several operations on her spine. She painted about this pain in works like "The Broken Column" (1944). In the painting, her body is split open, and her injured spine is shown as a broken column. Nails are driven into her body, making her look like Saint Sebastian, a figure often associated with suffering. Despite her tears, her face refuses to show weakness. This inner strength came from her fierce willpower.
In Tree of Hope (1946), painted after she had spinal surgery, Frida shows herself twice; once as a helpless victim and once as a hero who’s saving herself. She holds up a banner with the words “Tree of Hope, Keep Firm,” which is from one of her favorite songs.
After spending a year in the hospital and having about seven surgeries on her spine, Frida painted Self-Portrait with the Portrait of Doctor Farill (1951) and gave it to her surgeon. In the painting, Frida is sitting in a wheelchair, painting a portrait of her doctor. Her heart is painted on her palette, and her brushes are dripping with blood, showing that she was painting from the heart. She said, “Dr. Farill saved me. He gave me back the joy of life.”
But that joy didn’t last long. In 1953, her right leg was amputated below the knee. Still, Frida stayed brave and ordered red boots with bells to “dance her joy.” In her diary, she drew her injured legs and wrote, “Feet, what do I need them for if I have wings to fly?” But in reality, she was in a lot of pain. As her health got worse, she started taking large amounts of Demerol to manage the pain.
In April 1953, Frida had her first exhibition in her home country, Mexico. Even though her doctors told her not to go, she had her four-poster bed carried into the gallery so she could be there. She lay in the bed, looking wild and worn out, while her friends and admirers came to congratulate her. The following year, even though she was tied to her wheelchair, she sometimes managed to sit and paint for short periods. But the drugs she was taking affected her technique, and her brushwork became rough. In her painting Marxism Will Give Health to the Sick, she tried to make her art a way to express her political beliefs. In the painting, Marx appears in the sky like a miracle worker, and thanks to him, Frida is able to throw away her crutches.
The last image in Frida’s diary is a roughly painted black angel, and her final words were, “I hope the exit is joyful and I hope never to come back—Frida.” She died on July 13, 1954, probably from an intentional overdose. Diego was devastated. He said, “Too late now I realized that the most wonderful part of my life had been my love for Frida.”
To those who love her work, Frida represents strength in the face of hardship and the ability to find joy even in pain. In her final months, Frida wrote in her journal:
"I have achieved a lot.
I will be able to walk.
I will be able to paint.
I love Diego more than I love myself.
My will is great.
My will remains."
Even though Frida said she didn’t want to come back after death, she loved life and lived it fully. Eight days before she died, she wrote Viva la Vida on a piece of watermelon in one of her last still-life paintings. Viva la Vida was her way of celebrating life, even as she knew death was close.
I recommend this book if you want to learn more about Frida Kahlo, the revolutionary artist. Her story is really inspiring. Honestly, I tried not to tell you the whole story, but it was hard not to. Her art is what really stood out to me, so I’ve described and analyzed many of her paintings here because that’s what I connected with most. It was very interesting and i enjoyed reading about her work and the true meaning behind the mysterious paintings. She lived a tragic life and went through so much pain, but she found peace in her art, and nobody could take that from her. I learned a lot from her life, especially about resilience and believing in yourself. It taught me that being self-sufficient is key and that no one is going to save you. You have to do what you love and ignore the noise. From her story, I learned that we are the only ones we truly have, and we need to be our own cheerleaders because no one else will.
Frida wanted her husband’s love so badly, but even that couldn’t save her. It was more of an obsession to me. I also strongly believe that she deserved better. People can take away their love or loyalty, but the relationship we have with ourselves is what stays. No one owes us anything, and Frida never chased outside validation. Her art spoke for itself, and that’s what took her far. What I love most is how she never followed the crowd or tried to fit in. She was unique, and her originality made her stand out. I wish she had applied that same attitude to her love life, but despite that, she was incredibly strong. She loved genuinely and intensly. It takes a strong person to love truly. She was in pain for most of her life, but she never stopped.
Frida Kahlo If you’re looking for a book to motivate you to keep going, this one is for you. And from me, I’ll say this: you’re doing great. Even if no one says it, believe me, they see it, and your light shines. Celebrate yourself today. You’ve come this far and like Frida Khalo, i urge you not to be scared of being who you truly are.
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