Self-Portrait with a Monkey is a work by the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo made in 1938. It is currently kept at the Albright-Knox Museum in Buffalo (New York State).
In October 1938, Frida had her first solo exhibition at the Levy Gallery in New York. Entering the crowd of onlookers, A. Conger Goodyear, president of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, noticed one of the paintings he wanted for his collection: Fulang Chang and Me. Unfortunately, the work had already been promised to another person. Convinced that he wanted to acquire a work by Frida, he commissioned a similar self-portrait from her. A week later, the work Autorretrato con mono was ready.
Plants and trees: They were very important to Frida and her garden, in La Casa Azul, became a much loved place for her retreat and calm. However, in this self-portrait, in particular, this nature is represented wild and wild, very different from an atmosphere of peace. Monkey: Exotic animals such as parrots, cats, monkeys and deer, inhabited La Casa Azul in Coyoacán where Frida was born and lived with Diego Rivera from 1929 to 1954. These were Frida’s pets and motifs present in almost all of her paintings. Possibly these animals served to comfort Frida’s loneliness and frustrated desire to have children.
