The Two Fridas
Frida Kahlo · 1939
Oil on canvas
Quick answer
The Two Fridas (1939) by Frida Kahlo is at Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City. The Two Fridas is an oil painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, created in 1939 immediately after her divorce from muralist Diego Rivera. It depicts two seated self-portraits — a European-dressed Frida with a damaged, exposed heart on the left, and an indigenous Mexican-dressed Frida holding a small portrait of Diego Rivera on the right. Their hearts are connected by a blood vessel. The painting is at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City and is Kahlo's largest work. World Museum Guide explains what you're looking at and how to see it.
Where to see it
Museo de Arte Moderno — Mexico City, Mexico
Mexico City's museum of modern art in Chapultepec Park — home to The Two Fridas.
This venue is not yet covered by a full World Museum Guide page — we link to the official site for tickets and hours.
Frequently asked questions
What does The Two Fridas represent?
The Two Fridas depicts Kahlo's emotional state immediately after her divorce from Diego Rivera in 1939. The Frida on the right, dressed in Tehuana indigenous Mexican clothing, holds a small oval portrait of Rivera as a child and has a whole, intact heart. The Frida on the left, in European Victorian dress, has a damaged heart with a cut artery bleeding onto her white dress. The painting represents the conflict between the Mexican identity that Rivera loved and the European identity she was being rejected with.
Where is The Two Fridas?
The Two Fridas is in the collection of the Museo de Arte Moderno (Modern Art Museum) in the Bosque de Chapultepec (Chapultepec Park) in Mexico City. The museum also holds other important Kahlo works. Mexico City's most important Kahlo museum is the Casa Azul (Blue House) in Coyoacán, where she was born and died — but The Two Fridas is at the Museo de Arte Moderno.
Who is the woman in the small portrait in The Two Fridas?
The small oval portrait held by the Tehuana-dressed Frida on the right is of Diego Rivera as a child. Kahlo used a miniature that she owned — it shows Rivera as a young boy, before he became the famous muralist. Connecting the miniature to the blood vessel that links both hearts, Kahlo visualises Rivera as both the source and object of her love — and the thread connecting her two identities.
Was Frida Kahlo a Surrealist?
Kahlo strongly objected to the Surrealist classification: 'I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.' André Breton, the founder of Surrealism, championed her work when he visited Mexico in 1938 and saw similarities with Surrealism's use of unconscious imagery and dreamlike juxtapositions. Kahlo's work does share elements with Surrealism but is rooted in her autobiographical experience, Mexican folk art traditions, and indigenous iconography rather than in Freudian theory or automatic writing.
How large is The Two Fridas?
The Two Fridas measures 173.5 × 173 cm (approximately 68 × 68 inches) — nearly a square metre and three-quarter. It is Kahlo's largest painting. The scale is unexpected given that most of her works are small, intimate self-portraits. The monumental scale of The Two Fridas emphasises the gravity of the emotional experience it depicts.