Artists throughout history have used many various subjects to portray in their artwork, from fruit bowls and landscapes to animals and people. Family members are often subject matter for artists as they are a strong part of the artist’s identity. Grandparents are of a particular importance, as shown by two different artists from two different eras. Frida Kahlo depicted her ancestry in a painting called My Parents My Grandparents and I and Tony Mendoza did the same in his Abuelos en su Jardin. While the similarities between My Parents My Grandparents and I and Abuelos en su Jardin are evident, the differences between the two are striking.
Frida Kahlo Born in 1907 in Mexico, Kahlo contracted polio at the age of seven. This event was the start of a series of tragedies that would give the artist a number of troubling…show more content… Unlike Kahlo’s, however, Mendoza’s grandparents are depicted as sassy and full of life. No stiffness and formality is shown in this painting. The viewer is first struck by the bright colors used in the tropical garden setting. In the background there is a blue sky and palms trees surrounded by lush red flowering shrubbery. A green lizard climbs a palm tree while a yellow butterfly floats past the grandmother’s head. The gray-haired grandparents sit separately in two chairs. Their clothes are bright and summery, he in all white and she in hot pink. The grandfather wears a white hat with a red band. He has a cigar in his shirt pocket and a wooden cane in his hand. The grandmother has her gray haired pulled into a bun on the top of her head, wears glasses, and her ears are pierced with large gold hoop earrings. She wears a golden cross at her neck and a revealing, low-cut dress. She has her arms crossed under her chest. The two grandparents look at each other with sideways glances and little