How Did Kahlo Influence Diego Rivera

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In 1928, Kahlo joined the Communist Party at the recommendation of Italian-American photographer and leftist activist Tina Modotti, who introduced Rivera to Kahlo. In 1922, however, before Kahlo got to meet Diego through Modotti, in fact, she already met him by chance when he created a mural at the National Preparatory School (Kettenmann Andrea, 2002, p. 22). According to Rivera’s memoir, Kahlo was a plucky girl who suddenly showed him her paintings while he was painting a mural. Rivera, who noticed her talents, reinforced her commitment to art to help her build a career as an artist. Rivera’s ideological influence greatly affected Kahlo’s paintings. On August 21, 1929, 23-year-old Kahlo became the third wife of Diego Rivera , who was twenty-one …show more content…

During this period, the world was rocked by a socialist movement characterized by a counterattack against nonfigurative art and a reversion to figurative art, a change that enabled artists to deliver social messages clearly. Kahlo’s paintings started receiving global attention from the 1970s. Feminism in art at the time suggested that women’s physical characteristics were women’s own space, distinguished from men’s. Her paintings honestly and comprehensively expressed her personal experiences and emotions, to which only women could relate. Self-portrait was a recurring theme in her paintings, which depicted women as active observers of their inner being rather than as passive objects of men’s attraction. From this perspective, Kahlo’s pieces are extremely pioneering (Deffebach, 2015). The feminist movement provided opportunities for the discovery of more female artists in the world of art; this movement helped her paintings see the light of day. During the period when male chauvinism prevailed, Kahlo stood against conservative society with her strong character and personality; she strived to create a new era and tread the path of a pioneer. In this respect, Kahlo was an artist who had great influence on improving women’s social

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