Frida Kahlo and Astrid Hadad: performing woman and nation in 20th century Mexico

Situated within the postrevolutionary period (1920–1940), the analysis discusses how Kahlo’s paintings perform themes of gender and national identity. Similarly, it demonstrates how Hadad’s performances during the NAFTA era (1980–2000) critique and navigate shifting national sentiments through the lens of gendered nationhood.<br><br>Integrating art history, gender studies, and cultural anthropology into a theoretical framework that engages critical theories of identity and performance, the research explores how Kahlo and Hadad utilize their artistic practices to challenge and reshape entrenched cultural narratives.

This theoretical approach sheds light on how the praxis of performance and Kahlo and Hadad’s resistant cultural depictions of womanhood interact with and challenge the official and pedagogical discourses of nationhood. In arguing that gender and national identities are performative and constructed through cultural practices, the thesis positions their artistic work as a critical site for negotiating and contesting identity within the important context of Mexican art and Mexican Studies more broadly.<br><br>This study claims originality in its methodological approach, combining performance theories with a multidisciplinary framework to highlight how art and culture act as conduits for questioning and transforming societal norms, particularly in the context of significant historical periods in Mexico.