Homage to Kahlo's "Self Portrait (Dedicated to Leon Trotsky)"
About the Hoop
This 8” embroidered and sequined hoop pays homage to Kahlo’s 1937 “Self-Portrait (Dedicated to Leon Trotsky).” Her hair is beaded with a twist of beads, interlaced with ribbon. She is wearing a small earring and a garnet necklace; a rebozo and skirt made from upcycled fabrics, sari ribbon, and lace (overlaid with beading); and carrying a bouquet of beaded flowers and leaves. I embroidered a small piece of ribbon to represent the letter that Frida holds for Trotsky in the piece, including the first few words or her inscription, “Para L. Trotsky,” and her signature. The background is heavily sequined, in a style adopted from Haitian Vodou flags, and the fabric curtains expand “outside the hoop.”
Scroll down for more images. Available for purchase at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, gift shop.
About the Painting
Frida gifted this self-portrait to Leon Trotsky on his birthday and the anniversary of the Russian Revolution (November 7) in 1937. She had a brief affair with Trotsky while he and his wife, Natalia, were staying at the Blue House after fleeing Russia. Diego had secured asylum for the couple in Mexico. Hayden Herrera describes this portrait as one of Frida’s “most seductive”: “She presents herself to the great revolutionary not as a Tehuana, nor as a political activist, but as a colonial aristocrat dressed ‘fit to kill,’ holding a sheet of paper on which she dedicates the portrait to him ‘with all love.’ No doubt she wanted to keep herself in the forefront of her former lover’s mind and heart. Frida was pure mischief…” (Herrera, Frida Kahlo: The Portraits, p. 58).
