Art Wilfrieda Van De Velde

Inspired by Frida Kahlo

Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) fought a hard battle with her own body throughout her whole life. Despite those setbacks with permanent injuries, Kahlo was a determined woman with tremendous vitality. People who came to comfort her went home comforted.

The works of art based on Frida Kahlo are a tribute to this brave and strong woman.

Kahlo was struggling with a duality: on the one hand she wanted to emphasize her femininity, but on the other hand she also showed the masculine energy she had in her.
On the material paintings – made from acrylic paint, sand, cement, and often corroded iron wire on panel covered with canvas – we can find this theme. The universal female figures symbolize the soft and tenderness present in every woman. On the other hand, the used materials and pasty technique suggest their strength and resilience.

Kahlo literally wanted to disguise her pain and discomfort, therefore she wrapped herself in special creations: dresses full of flowers and lace (Tehuana dresses). She used beautiful jewellery and braided ribbons and large flowers in her hairstyle. Dressing this way was an expression of her artistic talent.

Her colourful look on life, her Mexican dresses with lots of lace remain an inexhaustible source for creatively capturing its beauty and precision in jewellery made from gold, silver, bronze, and in material paintings and bronze statues.

This Frida Kahlo collection includes the following parts:

Woman and power: goldsmith art, material paintings and bronze sculptures inspired by her power.

Colourful lady: jewellery designs and material paintings with a focus on her love for bright colours and pearls.

A touch of lace and wire: processing real lace into silver, gold and bronze jewellery according to the ancient lost wax method.  

 

 

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