In many of her self-portraits Frida is accompanied by her favorite animals, which substitute the children she never had. Sometimes they are spider monkeys, parrots, or dogs.
Such is the case of this Self-Portrait with Small Monkey (1945) that depicts Frida in three-quarter profile, with the attire and hairstyle of the indigenous women of southeastern Mexico.
She is intertwined with Señor Xolotl, as she called her Mexican hairless dog...
...while behind her, at the right, a spider monkey stares at the viewer.
On the background there is a pre-Hispanic idol.
A ribbon intertwines all the figures; ending on the one side on Frida’s signature...
...and on the other is wound-up around a nail piercing the beige clouds that form the painting’s backdrop.
Self-portrait with Small Monkey by Frida KahloMuseo Dolores Olmedo
