DEER- KHALO (The Wounded Deer)

Painting by Frida Kahlo, 1946

Media: oil and masonite painting
DESCRIPTION
The Wounded Deer artwork shows the body of a deer with a head of a
human which is Frida Kahlo with nine bows through his body and
dripping blood in the woods. There's a small branch with green leaves
on the foreground, in front of the hybrid. Only dead, gloomy, dark,
brown trunks (9 trunks on the right side) of the trees can be seen. You
can see the value on the grass, the further away it is the darker it
is. The deer is standing up and in the background you can see the
light blue sky and darker blue water. The title's impact on the artist's
work is quite simple, a deer that has been wounded by arrows.
ANALYSIS
I see the principle of contrast because in the background you can see
the 2 different shades of blue, the sky is brighter while the water
is darker. The picture balance is asymmetrical, because if you were to
split the picture in half, the sides wouldn't be equal to each other . The
rhythm on the painting is arrows because their more than one on the
deer. The emphasis is on the blood, because it's the brightest color on
the picture. The principles of design are ways to organize the elements
of art.
INTERPRETATION
The viewer can tell the deer/ human feels little pain from getting stabbed with
arrows. The mood is depression, suffering and hopelessness. They can also tell that
there is someone else in the forest (the person that shot the arrows on to
the deer). I think the artists is trying to show that animals are alike human
(connecting it to the hybrid) and when human kill them, they feel very little pain,
but that there's still pain in the deer (meaning the blood/ arrows on the
deer's body, but not the human face) . Therefore, Frida Kahlo is trying to tells that
humans need to stop killing animals.
Another interpretation is that, earlier Kahlo's life, her right foot and leg had been
crushed in a bus accident. Then, in 1946, Frida Kahlo went to New York City to
undergo an extensive operation on her spine to relieve her of constant back pain.
The operation failed, and Kahlo returned to Mexico in greater pain than before,
unable to walk , and suffering from emotional depression.
My personal interpretation of this artwork is to keep moving, because the deer has
been shot nine but she has the strength to stand. It shows me that when things get
hard in my life, I have to stand strong. I chose this artwork it was interesting to see a
emotionless deer still standing after getting shot.
EVALUATION
The artist's work of art is conceptually success because it's so
unexpected. The way she uses a hybrid in a "normal" background it
makes the view look close into the picture, to analysis it. And that's
what artist are supposed to do, make a person's imagine go wild. It
makes viewer ask themselves, why or how is the deer is still alive? Why
doesn't the hybrid feel any pain? This artist's goal is to make you think
and manipulate your eyes. She controls your eyes by adding principles
of design