During my visit to the Museum of Modern Art, what caught me eye was a self-portrait of Frida Kahlo, a Mexican-American artist who explores themes of identity. I was strolling through exhibits and when I reached the third floor in the Phillip Johnson Galleries, I took one look at Frida’s pieces and headed inside the gallery to explore more about her. Going into the museum of Modern Art, I was expecting to see many paintings and pieces that I was familiar with so I decided to make things a bit more interesting by exploring the unknown. I read a bit into Frida’s life and was shocked to find out that her path to artwork was far from ordinary. She had experienced a tragic accident on a bus in 1925 that led to her beginning her journey of artistry leading to her world famous works that explore her own creative mind. That crash left Frida with many injuries including a broken spine which caused her to be bedridden for months on end where she spent a lot of time finding ideas for her art. Learning about Frida’s story to me was inspiring to see the resilience of a woman who turned her life around despite the many challenges she faced.
Moving into the piece that I chose, Frida is seen pictured with a monkey who she kept as a pet. To me, this was interesting to see and certainly not an ordinary self portrait that you would see in any typical gallery. In addition, Frida is seen with a unibrow and a light mustache which was unique to her image and spoke volumes about the strong sense of self that Frida possessed. During that time, this kind of a look was frowned upon and did not meet the beauty standards of a woman. However, Frida had the strength and courage to defy beauty standards and go against social norms which is what I admire about her as an artist. Moreover, when looking at this piece, onlookers have to stop and reflect and contemplate on the piece and really break it down to fully understand the meaning behind this self-portrait. On the other hand, the mass reproduction of this art as 884-piece puzzle in the gift shop removes that sense of viewership and rather turns the piece into a playful image for leisurely purposes.
With the art being reproduced as a puzzle, it takes away from the original art and now changes the focus onto Frida as a marketable figure rather than her original artistry. In addition, when seeing a crocheted doll version of Frida Kahlo being sold at $42.99, it now becomes a matter of profitable business and loses the original intended purpose of the art. The puzzles and dolls of Frida market her to children and turn her into a playful icon as opposed to an artist who faced struggles and overcame difficulties to contribute to her creative expression. Furthermore, by altering the self-portrait of Frida along with her other works into puzzles and dolls, it takes away from the meaning of Frida’s work by introducing Frida as a marketing tool rather than as an individual artist with creative talent.
Relating back to what we had spoken about in class when it comes to the mass production of certain pieces and whether or not they lose their meaning, I believe that a piece does lose a part of its meaning when mass produced. The reason for this being that when I had initially walked through the Phillip Johnson Gallery and viewed Frida Kahlo’s pieces, I was intrigued and really took the time to find the meaning behind her work and do my own research on how she came to be as a creative. However, when visiting the gift shop, I could see that people would walk by and look at these mass produced pieces with a consumerist view. People would take a look at a puzzle or doll and look at the price and move to the next item. Simply put, the experience in the gift shop showed me that the original meaning of the work was reduced to a marketing strategy. Alternatively, different adaptations outside of a gift shop setting such as the ones that were shown in class may have a different outcomes such as, Andy Warhol with the Marilyn Monroe pop art screen prints.
