Viva la Vida, Watermelons, 1954 Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo 9 Frida Kahlo Paintings 9 Viva la Vida, Watermelons, 1954 Frida Kahlo
Viva la Vida, Watermelons 1954 Frida Kahlo

Viva la Vida, Watermelons by Frida Kahlo

In this painting Frida shows a cracked and intense red watermelon.

Color, like previous paintings, symbolizes life. This idea is accentuated by the left watermelon that suggests the fertilization of an ovule and sperm that are the seeds.

All of this under the sky in two shades of blue, one lighter and one darker, signifying joy and sadness. The land where the watermelons perch is not missing from the painting because we are Earth and we will become earth.

On the central slice Frida writes her name, place of birth and year of her death. As an epitaph he wrote the motto that marked his life, Viva la vida.

Frida Kahlo Watermelons painting

In the book “Frida Kahlo – Still Lifes”, author Salomon Grimberg suggests that “Viva la vida” might not have been painted in 1954 and was probably painted in 1952, but the inscription was not included at the time. Sensing that her death was imminent, a few days before her death, for the last time Frida put the brush in the red paint to add the inscription and sign it.

If you compare this still life with another still life painted in 1954, “Still Life with a Flag“, you can see the difference. In this other painting, the brushstrokes are no longer precise and the application of thick layers of paint seems to have been scattered at random, probably due to the excess of morphine and alcohol to which the painter was subjected at the time.