“The Two Fridas” is a distinguished artwork by artist Frida Kahlo, completed in the year 1939. This self-portrait, rendered in oil on canvas, measures 173.5 by 173 cm and is currently housed at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City, Mexico. The piece is representative of the Naïve Art movement, specifically Primitivism, which is characterized by a simplistic and raw visual language that often disregards classical perspective.
The artwork captures two versions of Frida Kahlo seated adjacent to one another against a stormy sky, with their hands joined. The Frida on the left is dressed in a Victorian-era white lace dress, whereas the Frida on the right wears a Tehuana costume, which is traditional Mexican peasant clothing. These two self-portraits are symbolic of Kahlo’s dual heritage: the European side, portrayed by the white dress, and the Mexican side, as seen with the Tehuana dress.
An exposed heart and the blood vessels, which are linked between the two figures, create a vivid visual metaphor for Kahlo’s emotional pain and complex inner life. The Frida in the white dress holds a pair of surgical forceps and a small portrait of Diego Rivera, Kahlo’s estranged husband, from whom she was separated at the time this artwork was created. The painting is a poignant exploration of Kahlo’s identity and her feelings of anguish and duality following her divorce from Rivera.
