Woman as Portrayed by Surrealist Painters.
The paintings by the two artists, Frida Khalo’s self-portrait of a monkey and Leonora Carrington’s self-portrait in the dawn of the horse demonstrates their creativity in communicating to the society. In Khalo’s images, she is in front of vegetation wearing the bone necklace and a blouse. She has his close friend that is spider monkey attracted by its childish and playful traits. In Carrington’s image, she is depicted wearing jodhpurs with the presence of a white rocking horse with its similar duplicate as real animal visible through the open enclosed in gold curtains. In front of him is triple breasted hyena appearing to be imitating whatever he is doing by raising one leg from the floor. Tiles are fixed on the floor with square appearance while Carrington is seated on an exotic chair, a reflection of a distracted artist at an easel. The paper will focus on analyzing the interaction of women with animals as well as the manner of representation.
In Khalo’s portrait, the monkey is sitting gently and firmly around her while it grasps her in a manner that they appear friendly, caring, and protective around each other. The renaissance art the meaning of the monkey was to show individuals that were held hostage for the desires. In the Mexican sense, monkeys are a reflection of fertility or lust. Therefore, Khalo uses the monkey as a way of showing her personal feeling of desperation and insufficiency. She uses the animal to reveal her own sexual needs and desires. The animal is just a symbol of showing loyalty in the way it appears on the back. It is a symbol of the burden that is carried by Khalo as it appears on the back that symbolizes her responsibility disturbing him every day (Potter, 2003). The monkey symbolizes her need not only for a companion but also loyalty that they can assist one another in times of burden. Khalo is trying to encourage other women on the need to agitate for their sexuality by defining things that women need in sexual life. The legacy of the portrait is demonstrating that women need loyalty, a sense of security, companion in life challenges, and love.
The environment in which the woman is positioned contributes significantly to the comprehension of the deeper meaning of artistic works. The atmosphere in which she is placed is exotic in the surrounding, especially the image of a monkey that appears to have spread legs that are not aligned with one another. Khalo’s appearance seems strange in what seems that she is not happy with her physical body. Her obsession with pets is a sign of extended self and being. The monkey is a reflection of the gift from her husband in which it symbolizes of children that she never succeeded in giving birth. The environment itself shows her fragile situation where she lacks something very vital as a woman that is children. The children would be like vegetation for him that is hope and happiness. It reflects her past struggles to show the challenges faced by women in abusive marriages and the inability to bear children due to a series of miscarriages.
The necklace around her neck is a critical symbol to demonstrate her bondage by her desires. She tries to explain that she needs someone around her all times despite the kind of situation. The necklace is something that accompanies everyone irrespective of the case. The fading vegetation is a demonstration of how the situation looks meaningless and inadequate. The leaves are faded to demonstrate inadequacy when one lacks something essential in life. Also, it’s hard for such vegetation to make something valuable. The plant is complemented by the unhappy face, a sign of how thick the situation appears in the absence of a companion. Khalo is trying to emphasize on how life looks to a woman what is yet to give birth to children of her own. Everything becomes worthless to her, and desperation rises such she can do anything to change the situation.
In Carrington’s portrait, the use of the two animals carries a more profound message to the audience. The horses in the picture are used to symbolize peace and liberty and show of love. The hyena is added as a way of demonstrating something unfriendly allowed to sneak in a peaceful environment (Campbell, 2012). One horse appears above the artist’s hand, with another jumping out of the window. Carrington is explaining peace as something costly to acquire. She wanted to emphasize that order is important than anything else in this world. Hyena is used to reflect something wild makes the horse run out of the golden window. She is trying to imitate the hyena, which shows something of conspiracy with the visitor that intimidates the horse. The animals are just symbols to demonstrate the difference between peace and war. The image dates back in the first half of the 20th century at the height of Nazi prosecutions. It is the reflection of the German people of how they had allowed something wild by imitating its ways that have driven peace away through an expensive approach. Could she be rebuking the ideas of NAZI leader Hitler who took control of Germany and intimidated peace?
The environment in which Carrington is situated contributes significantly to the understanding of the deeper meaning of the image. The chair in which she sits appears somehow exotic, while as she embraces the behavior of the hyena, she looks that viewer with a huge shock. It allows the viewer to approach the issue as something that comes against the expectations of many. It appears that the horse was, therefore, and after embracing a new friend, the initial one leaves the stage. The author wanted to demonstrate the need to either choose one option between the good and the evil. It appears that when she embraces the hyena (sin), then the seat turns exotic and shock in the peace of the consequences. It shows that despite the development of the place, then good and evil cannot reside in one room. The results are felt by people when it’s too late to adopt any change.
Campbell, L. (2012). Eileen Agar at home: Domesticity, Surrealism, and subversion. Interiors, 3(3), 227-246.
Potter, P. (2003). Frida Kahlo (1910–1954). Self-Portrait with Monkey (1938).