DIVERSITEA“I paint myself because I am

so often alone and because I

am the subject I know best.”

Frida Kahlo often has been described as a Surrealist artist,

yet she does not fit easily into this category. Known as the wife of Diego Rivera, she is recognized for her powerful self-portraits. Join us as Dr. Ilenia Colón Mendoza discusses the imagery within her work as it reflects important notions of gender and cultural identity. This lecture has a recommended reading. For more information, contact the Office of Diversity Initiatives at (407) 823-6479, or diverse@ucf.edu.Location:

Career Services Conference Room 121

RSVP: diverse@ucf.edu by September 7, 2012

Presented by:

Thursday,

September 13

2 - 3 PM

“Frida Kahlo: A Self-Portrait of Mexican-ness”

About Dr. Colón MendozaDr. Ilenia Colón Mendoza received a B.A. in Art History and Archaeology from the University of Evansville in Indiana and her M.A. and Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Colón Mendoza’s major area of research is seventeenth-century Spanish art. In addition to the visual arts of the Baroque, she also is proficient in Caribbean and Latin American art, and the art and architecture of Ancient Rome.

Her book entitled “The Cristos yacentes of Gregorio Fernández: Polychrome Sculptures of the Supine Christ in Seventeenth-Century Spain,” under contract with Ashgate publishers, examines the significance of the Cristo yacente sculptural type within the context of the theatrical elaborations of the Catholic Holy Week in Baroque

Spain. Her article, “Reading Devotion: Counter Reformation Iconography and Meaning in Gregorio Fernández Cristo yacente of El Pardo,” will be included in Methodological Studies of Christianity in the History of Art, Wipf & Stock Publishers, Oregon. The issues of pageantry, theater, and the connection between the creation of these images and the literature of the period are her focus.

Dr. Colón Mendoza’s current interests include exploring the issue of colored (polychrome) sculpture and its place in the art historical canon. She joined the University of Central Florida in 2010. She teaches Introduction to Art History I and II Honors, Visual Arts Administration, Women in Art, Mesoamerican Art, Mexican Art, Latin American Art, Twentieth Century Art, and Theory and Criticism. Her special topics courses include

Polychrome Sculpture Through the Ages, The Age of Velazquez, Caravaggio and his Times, and The Caribbean-ness of Caribbean Art.

About Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo de Rivera (July 6, 1907 – July 13, 1954) was a Mexican painter. Kahlo contracted polio at age six, and on September 17, 1925, she suffered serious injuries while riding a bus that collided with a trolley car. As a result of this accident, she broke her spinal column. While bedridden after the accident, Frida taught herself to paint. Of her 143 paintings, 55 are self-portraits which often reflect her personal struggles. She insisted, “I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.” She is recognized today as a influential female Latin American artist.