Wikimedia Commons • Public Domain
Henry Ford Hospital (The Flying Bed)
by Frida Kahlo
StyleSurrealism
Artwork Details
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Mexican artist Frida Kahlo painted this Henry Ford Hospital in 1932 following her miscarriage in Detroit. She lies naked on a hospital bed, bleeding, with six symbolic objects floating around her connected by red threads. These include a fetus, snail, pelvis, and medical equipment. The industrial Detroit skyline appears in the background.
This deeply personal work transformed private trauma into powerful visual imagery. Kahlo's unflinching self-examination and use of Mexican votive painting traditions created a new vocabulary for expressing female experience. The work held at the Dolores Olmedo Collection in Mexico City.
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About Henry Ford Hospital (The Flying Bed)
This painting is displayed at the Dolores Olmedo Collection in Mexico City. The museum holds the largest collection of Frida Kahlo works in the world.
The painting shows Kahlo after her miscarriage in Detroit in 1932. The floating objects connected to her by red threads symbolize her physical and emotional pain, including a fetus, medical equipment, and her damaged pelvis.
Kahlo combined Surrealist elements with Mexican folk art traditions, particularly votive paintings called retablos. Her work creates a unique visual language for personal and physical experiences.
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