Title of Artwork: “Henry Ford Hospital (The Flying Bed)”

Year Created 1932

 

Summary of Henry Ford Hospital (The Flying Bed)

Frida suffered a miscarriage on July 4, 1932, in Detroit, Michigan, while under the care of her doctors, who advised her to rest completely in order to carry her pregnancy to term. There were no other options, so she ended up at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit for a final abortion after her body couldn’t hold out any longer.

After a few days, Frida, who had fallen into a deep depression, requested that her unborn child be brought to her so she could paint it. This work, named after the hospital where she was being treated, was not granted to her, and she had to make do with some illustrations provided by Diego and her doctors.

 

All About Henry Ford Hospital (The Flying Bed) by Frida Kahlo

It is not uncommon for Kahlo to use religious ex-voto paintings as a basis for her early 1930s paintings in terms of their size and format as well as their architectural setting and spatial arrangement. By leaving them in churches or shrines, people express their gratitude for things like salvation, answered prayer, or averted disaster.

Ex-votos are usually painted on small metal panels depicting the incident and the Virgin or saint to whom they are dedicated. While the ex-voto format was used, it was subverted in Henry Ford Hospital (1932), which shows how an artist can use it to record her own miraculous deeds rather than simply documenting those of others.

When she paints her own storey, Kahlo portrays herself as a saintly figure, questioning the source of her suffering and creating art as an act of defiance rather than gratitude. Frida used a metal sheet for the first time as a support for a painting in the Mexican ex-voto tradition, with Henry Ford Hospital. In her later works, such as My Birth (1932), Self-Portrait on the Border of Mexico and the United States (1932), and Self-Portrait with Necklace (1933), she continued to use metal.

Kahlo is in Henry Ford Hospital, bleeding from a miscarriage, lying on a hospital bed. Symbols are attached to six vein-like ribbons that radiate out from the body’s exposed surface. There is a foetus among these six items, which suggests that the ribbons represent umbilical cords. The remaining five items in Frida’s immediate vicinity are all things she has either seen or remembered from her time in the hospital.

For example, the snail refers to the time it took for the miscarriage to be over, whereas the flower was a tangible gift from Diego. The artist demonstrates her desire to be a part of everything around her, including the mundane and the metaphorical as well as the physical and real.

Perhaps the artist is attempting to be ‘maternal’ by attempting to connect with others, even though she is unable to have a child of her own. Frida’s eyes are filled with tears. Toward the horizon, you can see the Ford Motor Company in Detroit, where Rivera was painting murals.

Many of Frida Kahlo’s portraits feature her subjects in bed. There’s even a picture of her own birth, complete with soiled sheets that tell the storey of what had just happened, in her 1932 work, My Birth. Even more poignant was the fact that she used a bed in A Few Small Nips (1935), which was inspired by newspaper accounts of an unimaginably gruesome murder.

It came at a bad time for Frida, who had just learned of her husband’s indiscretions and was left devastated. Rivera had an extramarital affair with her younger sister Cristina the year before, which deeply hurt Kahlo. ‘Much better than those she executed before losing her baby,’ Rivera later said, describing Kahlo as: ‘The only artist in the history of art who tore open her chest and heart to reveal the biological truth of her feelings.’

Pain and anguish have helped her build a strong fan base, in part due to her role as the woman who was both talented and exploited. Frida Kahlo has become a true icon and a martyr for the mistreated gender in modern society because of the growing support in society for women’s rights.

 

Facts About Henry Ford Hospital (The Flying Bed)

 

Why did Frida Kahlo Paint Henry Ford Hospital?

A miscarriage in 1932 prompted Frida Kahlo to create Henry Ford Hospital, a surrealist painting. The Dolores Olmedo Museum in Mexico is the proud owner of the painting. In this painting, she depicts her current state of mind in an emotionally charged and disturbing self-portrait.

 

What are the 6 Objects in Henry Ford Hospital painting?

The string that connects Kahlo to the six objects evokes the umbilical cord: a male foetus, a snail, a pelvic bone, an orchid that Diego gave her, a machine, and an orthopaedic cast.

 

What Does the Machine Represent in Henry Ford Hospital?

The cold machines in the hospital, represented by the machine in the lower left corner, were used on her (Self Portrait as a Tehuana, Autorretrato Como Tenhuana, Frida). The flower is a symbol of their sexual attraction to one another (Self Portrait as a Tehuana, Autorretrato Como Tenhuana, Frida).

 

Henry Ford Hospital the Flying Bed Dimensions

Artwork by Frida Kahlo, Henry Ford Hospital (1932), 38 x 31 cm

 

How Long was Frida Kahlo Bedridden?

When Frida Kahlo was a child, she suffered from ill-health. She was bedridden for nine months after contracting polio at the age of six. Her right leg and foot grew much thinner than her left one as a result of this condition.

 

Did Frida Kahlo go to Henry Ford Hospital?

It wasn’t long until she ended up at the Henry Ford Hospital, where an abortion was conducted to complete the process that had begun at home. Frida requested that the foetus of her child be brought to her so that she might paint it a few days later, in a condition of extreme depressiveness.

 

When Did Frida Kahlo Paint Henry Ford Hospital (The Flying Bed)?

1932

 

What was Frida Kahlo’s illness?

Kahlo was diagnosed with polio at the age of six. The result was that her right leg was thinner than her left, and the reduced blood flow to her leg was the source of constant pain for her. As a result of her illness, she was unable to return to school for several months.

 

Information Citations

En.wikipedia.org, https://en.wikipedia.org/.