Course

Frida Kahlo: Performing Passion and Pain - ARTS2905

Faculty: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

School: School of Humanities and Languages

Course Outline: School of Humanities & Languages

Campus: Sydney

Career: Undergraduate

Units of Credit: 6

EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)

Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 3

Enrolment Requirements:

Prerequisite: 30 units of credit at Level 1

CSS Contribution Charge: 1 (more info)

Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule

Further Information: See Class Timetable

Available for General Education: Yes (more info)

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Description

Subject Area: Spanish and Latin American Studies
This course can also be studied in the following specialisation: Women's and Gender Studies

Frida Kahlo has become an icon of contemporary art and feminism. This course examines her life and artistic production, and seeks to account for her status in Mexican and Latin American circles as well as in a broad international context. It emphasizes the self-consciously theatrical ways in which Kahlo’s work projects particular versions of the following general themes: ethnicity and "Mexicanness"; gender and sexuality; public and private selves; the body fragmented and in pain; and radical leftwing politics. In addition to discussing several dozen of Kahlo’s paintings, we also examine two feature films: Frida: Naturaleza viva (1984) directed by Paul Leduc, and the Hollywood production Frida (2002) directed by Julie Taymor.

The course starts with an overview of Mexican muralism and the role of art in post-revolutionary Mexico and concludes with an examination of the works of Kahlo’s contemporaries: María Izquierdo, Remedios Varo, and Leonora Carrington, all of whom painted in the shadow of male dominated Muralism.


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