In this self-portrait with imagery so odd that it evokes an almost dream-like setting, Frida Kahlo gazes out expressionless, with a mask-like stare. Usually known for her native Mexican costumes of long ruffled skirts and embroidered blouses, and for weaving ribbons, flowers and jewels into her crown of braids, here Frida Kahlo appears in a baggy man's suit with her hair cut off. She appears weak. Her arms are limp and her hands barely hold a pair of scissors and a strand of hair--the evidence of her self-destruction. The fresh-cut strands float and squirm in her barren surroundings, entwining themselves around her chair. It's almost as if her energy has been dispersed from her body and into her loose strands of hair. By rejecting the trappings of so-called "feminine" attire, Kahlo was making herself undesirable to her unfaithful husband, the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera whom she had divorced earlier the same year. Her new "masculine" guise was meant to deflect his superficial admiration--a superficiality echoed in the words from a popular Mexican song written at the top of the painting: "Look if I loved you, it was for your hair. Now that you are bald, I don't love you anymore." Alhough the subjects of Kahlo's paintings are often personal, her style is rooted in Mexican art, especially in nineteenth-century religious painting. Here, she offers herself to the viewer as a martyred saint. And this small, detailed picture with its odd dream-like setting recalls the comment of the Surrealist Andr Breton. He said, "The art of Frida Kahlo de Rivera is a ribbon around a time bomb." ...
