Source: WTL research files.
Painting: "La cama volando" (the flying bed) or "Henry Ford Hospital" (1932).
Comments: In this painting Frida Kahlo documents her induced miscarriage at the hospital in Detroit. Again we see a textual quality in the painting. Surrounding the floating bed are six symbols and a background representing Detroit industy and the Ford Motor Company's Rouge Plant. This painting shows various elements reminiscent of Salvador Dalí's Surrealism. The subtext is that Diego Rivera was making studies at this automobile plant for murals he was creating at the Detroit Institute of Arts. (For Rivera's Detroit mural, see: <= Diego Rivera #29 <= #30, and <= #31.)
Humanities Questions: Can you explain the symbolic objects and the writing on the bed in this painting? What is the ethos she is communicating in this self-portrait?