Memory or the Heart

In this self-portrait, Memory, the Heart 1937, Frida Kahlo expressed her misery and resentment over the affair that happened two years ago between Diego Rivera and Cristina. In this painting, her face has no expression but with all tears. She cropped her hair and was wearing the European-style clothes, which style was her favorite when she was separated from Diego Rivera. And as always, she uses the physical wounds to imply her psychic injuries. In the background was her schoolgirl outfit and her Tehuana costume and each set of clothes have one arm, with Frida Kahlo standing there without arms and seems helpless. She stands there with one foot on the ground and the other in the sea. The foot put over the sea wears an apparatus and suggested the recent food surgery she was undergoing. Memory, the Heart delivered a direct and simple message: she was heartbroken. Her huge heart lies on the ground at her feet and was pumping rivers of blood in the background landscape. Her body was pierced by a steel rod with seesawing cupids on either end, which created an accurate visualization of the sensation of pain.