“What first drew me to this work was the fact that it is such an anomaly in Frida Kahlo’s visual legacy.” — Raissa Bretaña In our first UNIQLO ArtSpeaks of the year, fashion historian @raissabretana examines Frida Kahlo’s 1940 “Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair” and how it contrasts with the overt femininity of her previous paintings. In this self-portrait, made just months after she divorced Mexican painter Diego Rivera, Kahlo casts off the traditionally feminine attributes with which she often depicted herself. Instead, she portrays herself with a short-clipped haircut wearing an oversized suit resembling those Rivera wore. Her high-heeled shoes and one dangling earring remain along with her characteristic penetrating outward gaze. Personal isolation is a recurring force across Kahlo self-portraits. Here, Kahlo expresses her feelings about her relationship using emotionally and symbolically charged details, while also asserting her sense of self as an independent artist. See Kahlo’s painting “Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair” in Gallery 517: Surrealist Objects. @uniqlousa is MoMA’s proud partner of #ArtForAll.