The Frame
Project
Frida Kahlo
Volunteer:
Date:
Grade Level: 5th Grade (and additional information for a 1st Grade Project
Artist: Frida Kahlo
Print Sculpture: The Frame
Art Vocabulary: Surrealism
Mural
Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead)
Poster from Mexican Fine Arts Museum
I. The Artist
Friday Kahlo (1907-1954), a Mexican artist who has gained an almost "cult" following since her death at age 47, presents the opportunity to familiarize students with a number of artistic and cultural facts.
Her work, which is very personal and intense, is most closely associated with the Surrealist Movement. Remind students that they have studied other Surrealist painters such as Magritte and Chagall. Her life is a triumph of artistic genius in the face of great pain and disappointment and she painted her "pain," often in a very shocking and disturbing way.
Many of her works are self-portraits that combine traditional Mexican imagery within a surreal, dreamlike composition. (Please read the excerpt of her life in Additional Information, also located on the oversized sheets in folder).
Please click here for additional images
Frida was a very strong, talented woman who came from a traditional culture with hopes of becoming a doctor (much of her work contains images of the human body). Due to a tragic accident, she could not complete medical school and it was during her recovery and several subsequent surgeries that she developed as an artist.
Another important influence on her life and work was her association and marriage to Diego Rivera, the political figure and artist.  Through both of these artists (Diego was primarily a muralist) we are able to appreciate the beauty and hardship of the "common man" in Mexican culture.
II. The Painting: The Frame
This work is done late in her career. It is beautiful, yet disturbing, self-portrait with its very direct, almost confrontational gaze. The colors and her appearance reflect her roots in the Mexican traditions, but her expression of defiance is her personal, very intense style. (Have students discuss the colors, the mood, the expression and what the painting makes them feel.)
III. Activity – Mexican-American Tradition
Much of Frida Kahlo's work surrounded the topic "life and death" and how difficult it is to live in this physical world. One tradition that is celebrated annually in Mexico and also by Latin-Americans in the United States is "Day of the Dead" (Dia de los Muertos). This is a day (November 2nd) when all who have come before and have passed on are honored. (Have students make connection with Halloween). Show the "Dia de los Muertos" poster and have the students react (see typed sheet by Gail Sellers and Linda Campbell).  Also read excerpt from "Day of the Dead" by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith for ideas.
Mention that there is a wonderful museum – The Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum  – in Chicago, located at 1852 West 19th Street that has rotating exhibits and a great gift shop!
One suggested activity would be mask-making. There are several folders with mask-making techniques. This would tie in nicely to the Day of the Dead tradition. Another possibility would be to create a Day of the Dead self-portrait using Mexican-American colors and imagery (e.g., skeletons, flowers). Materials could be bright colored paints, pastels or markets. This would be a great bulletin board display for Halloween!
5th Grade Project: The children will sit together in pairs because they will be sharing pastels and trading papers. Using pastels, the children will draw a memory of theirs in a dream-like way. Do not plan this picture. Just let the images pop into your head and place the images anywhere on the paper. Then after 10 minutes they w ill trade their paper with their partners and continue drawing the images of their memory.
The presentation for the first graders was given shortly before Halloween. Dia de los Muertos is an indigenous Mexican holiday which combines itself with the traditional All Saints Day of the Catholic Church. The holiday is a day of great celebration on November 2 each year. It is a day to honor all who came before and have passed on. A day to remember the dead. May people build shrines to commemorate relatives or loved ones that have died. The shrines are often quite beautiful, and combine artwork, bread for the dead, objects that may have belonged to the loved ones, or things arranged to remind those living of the deceased interests. Sugar skulls and skeletons of every imaginable size and dress are also a part of the celebration. Costumes are much like our Halloween costumes here in the United States. The folk art traditions are at their best here: paper maché, especially, along with cut paper, dough art, was, soft sewn objects, wood carvings, and many others. All are brightly colored, and very festive in nature.
A number of objects from the Mexican Fine Arts Museum, and my personal skeleton collection were brought in for them to see. Strong analogies were made to the Halloween holiday. The presentation was done with as many questions for the students as possible: About the poster, objects, and holiday. Some of the questions were as follows:
  • What do you see here?
  • What does it look like?
  • Is this a scary skeleton?
  • Why do you think she is holding the candles? (To light the way for the dead? To light our way?)
  • Do you know what a shrine is?
  • Do you think this looks like a happy celebration?
  • Would you like to make a skeleton for the Day of the Dead?
The presentation was followed by a project. Students were shown pictures of real skeletons, as well as drawings. We spoke about the figure in drawing and how artists learn the skeletal structure in art school in order to learn to draw well. We then drew skeletons, first lightly in pencil, then with a thick, black magic marker. The drawings were glued onto a piece of cardboard, and we cut them out for the children. The heads were cut off and a spring was placed in between, so the heads bounced. The skeletons were mounted on dowels, and some ribbons tied on to make them a little more festive.
NOTE: Cutting them out is a bit of work. We took them home to complete. Foam core board works best.
Additional Project Information located here

Additional Information on Frida Kahlo located here