My Grandparents, My Parents, and Me, 1936 by Frida Kahlo

My Grandparents, My Parents, and Me, 1936 by Frida Kahlo
My Grandparents, My Parents, and Me, 1936 by Frida Kahlo

In the painting, My Grandparents, My Parents, and Me, Frida Kahlo is a naked little girl holding the loop of red ribbon that is the representation of her bloodline. The ribbon supports her family tree as effortlessly as though it were the string of balloons. You may wonder why the ribbon has a loop and the loop was put at the exact place where her parents' bodies are overlapped. The artist put the hint on the fetus which can be seen in an X-ray vision under the wedding dress of her mothers. This is Frida Kahlo herself before she was born. The red loop might refer her mother's sex life, since just under the fetus there are a bunch of sperms swum through the ribbon loop to an egg that is fertilized. Also by the fertilized egg, a red cactus flower is opened to some windblown pollen.

Settled in cloud puffs (a delightfully kitsch gadget obtained from her parents' wedding photo or from religious artworks), Frida's grandparents are recognized as Mexican or German by their particular position over the dry earth or over the ocean. Frida's parents' images are also based on their wedding photos.

Photo of Frida Working on Her Bed
Photo of Frida Working on Her Bed

Frida mentioned she looks like both mom and dad: "I have my father's eyes and my mother's body." She was very lucky from that perspective: her mother has a beautiful figure with the wasp-waist and her father has larges eyes and looks very intelligent. Frida put herself at the position right in front of her dad. It was with her father she was mostly identified as a little kid.