Composition - Her Political View: Tone - Role of the feet:

- Rape of Mexico: Using the empire - This painting stands out from the rest
state building as an emblem of the of Kahlo's works, using the subdued
American culture under fire, Frida tones of her paint pallet. As these
exposes her political underbelly picture represent her in some form of
showing her perspective of the US Fridas personality, the tone used here
imperialism on Mexico, which was a is different. She uses a lot of yellow
pretty sensitive topic during the 1930s which send a sense of sickness and
fear. This feeling is escalated by using
Color - Keen sense of lassitude: the feet that emerge which are
- Frida died due to asphyxiation, for presumably Kahlo’s own feet, as her
which she was given treatment at an legs are surrounded by vignettes of
early stage of her life. In this picture we different images that settle on the
can see her pale skin showing signing surface of the water.
of asphyxiation. The use of this color in What the Water Gave Me -
this painting suggests that she has Frida Khalo - 1938 -
Oil on canvas
Contrast - Woman floating in the
died.
91 cm × 70.5 cm water:
- Kahlo represents herself sleeping in
her bed, floating before a stormy sky, a
Emphasis -Bleeding foot: background she often employed in her
- This painting works as a self-portrait even without Frida's face paintings. The stark contrast of the
shown in it. This is done using emphasis. Next to her mangled yellow bedspread stands out against
right foot, a bleeding vein emerges from the drain, perhaps to the dark tones of the sky. According to
emphasize the wound on her toes. Portraying the multiple Kahlo’s diary, the color yellow was
surgeries she has gone through meant to signify madness, sickness
and fear
 Function and Purpose
‘What The Water Gave Me’ by Frida Kahlo is known as her autobiography. The painting depicts
highlights of herself and her work. Natascha Steed a scholar says that, “her paintings were all very
honest and she never portrayed herself as being more or less beautiful than she actually was.” With
this painting she depicts her unconscious self, where the viewer can metaphorically see her
imperfections and understand the innards of her mind. There is a lot going around in the bathtub, with
a volcano erupting a building, a small skeleton, a female figure, a rope, a faceless man and etc. I the
painting we can also see some old works of her paintings like the painting ‘My Parent, My
Grandparents and I‘, ‘The garden of earthly delights’
This painting is a memoir of her life, during the season of making this painting Frida herself said,
“I drank to drown my pain, but the damned pain learned how to swim, and now I am overwhelmed by
this decent and good behavior”.(Frida Khalo) A scholar later analysed that a common feature of
Khalo’s painting is showing the duality of life and in this painting she attempts to describe the body she
lost, her hetrosexual and lesbain affaris, Mexican and European, the closeness and treachery of the
people she loved and etc. The function of this painting is not only to show her lifes biography but for
the viewer to learn from analysing her painting.
 Work Cited

Murch, millard. “Art Quotations.” Frida Kahlo Art Quotes,

.Historyofpainters, 13 July 2017,
www.historyofpainters.com/kahlo.htm.
Katie Jean Tapia-Lynch. “Frida Kahlo: A Post-Revolutionary
Artist.” A Post-Revolutionary Artist, Wayne State University, 1
Jan. 2017,
digitalcommons.wayne.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1594&con
text=oa_theses.