Exploring Artistic Expressions of Postcolonialism: A Case Study of Frida Kahlo

Abstract

Postcolonialism is a theory that explores the cultural impact of colonization, which did not die after countries and nations gained their independence one after another, but profoundly affected the colonized lands with political, economic, and cultural penetration. Artists who awakened to a new national consciousness and adhered to a post-colonial political stance produced many related works. Taking the famous Mexican artist Frida Kahlo as an example, this paper explores the expressions and meanings of postcolonial art in terms of both cultural subjectivity and trauma expression. Using a postcolonial theoretical framework and a work analysis approach, this study considers and interprets her postcolonial artistic expressions, and finally extracts two important features of Frida Kahlo’s work: the first is the common use of indigenous Mexican cultures to interpret what she thinks and feels, and the second is the use of surrealism and magical realism to dramatize the postcolonial traumas of her and her compatriots. Frida Kahlo, for example, has a high degree of recognition of her Mexican identity and a deep emotional connection to Mexican culture. As a result, she is able to obtain a constant stream of inspiration from the local culture and use it to write about her own subject as well as the collective. To this day, the techniques she used are still worthwhile for marginalized cultures to learn from and apply.