Painter Frida Kahlo (1910–1954) often used harrowing images derived

Painter Frida Kahlo (1910–1954) often used
harrowing images derived from her Mexican heritage
to express suffering caused by a disabling accident and
a stormy marriage. Suggesting much personal and
(5) emotional content, her works—many of them self
portraits—have been exhaustively psychoanalyzed,
while their political content has been less studied. Yet
Kahlo was an ardent political activist who in her art
sought not only to explore her own roots, but also to
(10) champion Mexico’s struggle for an independent
political and cultural identity.

Kahlo was influenced by Marxism, which appealed
to many intellectuals in the 1920s and 1930s, and by
Mexican nationalism. Interest in Mexico’s culture and
(15) history had revived in the nineteenth century, and by
the early 1900s, Mexican indigenista tendencies ranged
from a violently anti-Spanish idealization of Aztec
Mexico to an emphasis on contemporary Mexican
Indians as the key to authentic Mexican culture.
(20) Mexican nationalism, reacting against contemporary
United States political intervention in labor disputes as
well as against past domination by Spain, identified the
Aztecs as the last independent rulers of an indigenous
political unit. Kahlo’s form of Mexicanidad, a romantic
(25) nationalism that focused upon traditional art uniting all
indigenistas, revered the Aztecs as a powerful pre
Columbian society that had united a large area of the
Middle Americas and that was thought to have been
based on communal labor, the Marxist ideal.

(30) In her paintings, Kahlo repeatedly employed Aztec
symbols, such as skeletons or bleeding hearts, that
were traditionally related to the emanation of life from
death and light from darkness. These images of
destruction coupled with creation speak not only to
(35) Kahlo’s personal battle for life, but also to the Mexican
struggle to emerge as a nation—by implication, to
emerge with the political and cultural strength admired
in the Aztec civilization. Self-Portrait on the Border
between Mexico and the United States (1932), for
(40) example, shows Kahlo wearing a bone necklace,
holding a Mexican flag, and standing between a highly
industrialized United States and an agricultural,
preindustrial Mexico. On the United States side are
mechanistic and modern images such as smokestacks,
(45) light bulbs, and robots. In contrast, the organic and
ancient symbols on the Mexican side—a bloodd
renched Sun, lush vegetation, an Aztec sculpture, a
pre-Columbian temple, and a skull alluding to those
that lined the walls of Aztec temples emphasize the
(50) interrelation of life, death, the earth, and the cosmos.

Kahlo portrayed Aztec images in the folkloric style
of traditional Mexican paintings, thereby heightening
the clash between modern materialism and indigenous
tradition; similarly, she favored planned economic
(55) development, but not at the expense of cultural
identity. Her use of familiar symbols in a readily
accessible style also served her goal of being popularly
understood; in turn, Kahlo is viewed by some
Mexicans as a mythic figure representative of
(60) nationalism itself.

1. Which one of the following best expresses the main point of the passage?

(A) The doctrines of Marxist ideology and Mexican nationalism heavily influenced Mexican painters of Kahlo’s generation.
(B) Kahlo’s paintings contain numerous references to the Aztecs as an indigenous Mexican people predating European influence.
(C) An important element of Kahlo’s work is conveyed by symbols that reflect her advocacy of indigenous Mexican culture and Mexican political autonomy.
(D) The use of Aztec images and symbols in Kahlo’s art can be traced to the late nineteenth-century revival of interest in Mexican history and culture.
(E) Kahlo used Aztec imagery in her paintings primarily in order to foster contemporary appreciation for the authentic art of traditional Mexican culture.



2. With which one of the following statements concerning psychoanalytic and political interpretations of Kahlo’s work would the author be most likely to agree?

(A) The psychoanalytic interpretations of Kahlo’s work tend to challenge the political interpretations.
(B) Political and psychoanalytic interpretations are complementary approaches to Kahlo’s work.
(C) Recent political interpretations of Kahlo’ s work are causing psychoanalytic critics to revise their own interpretations.
(D) Unlike the political interpretations, the psychoanalytic interpretations make use of biographical facts of Kahlo’s life.
(E) Kahlo’s mythic status among the audience Kahlo most wanted to reach is based upon the psychoanalytic rather than the political content of her work.



3. Which one of the following stances toward the United States does the passage mention as characterizing Mexican nationalists in the early twentieth century?

(A) opposition to United States involvement in internal Mexican affairs
(B) desire to decrease emigration of the Mexican labor force to the United States
(C) desire to improve Mexico’s economic competitiveness with the United States
(D) reluctance to imitate the United States model of rapid industrialization
(E) advocacy of a government based upon that of the Marxist Soviet Union rather than that of the United States



4. In the context of the passage, which one of the following phrases could best be substituted for the word “romantic” (line 24) without substantially changing the author’s meaning?

(A) dreamy and escapist
(B) nostalgic and idealistic
(C) fanciful and imaginative
(D) transcendental and impractical
(E) overwrought and sentimental



5. The passage mentions each of the following as an Aztec symbol or image found in Kahlo’s paintings EXCEPT a

(A) skeleton
(B) sculpture
(C) serpent
(D) skull
(E) bleeding heart



6. Which one of the following best describes the organization of the third paragraph?

(A) contrast of opposing ideas
(B) reconciliation of conflicting concepts
(C) interrelation of complementary themes
(D) explication of a principle’s implications
(E) support for a generalization by means of an example



7. The passage implies that Kahlo’s attitude toward the economic development of Mexico was

(A) enthusiastic
(B) condemnatory
(C) cautious
(D) noncommittal
(E) uncertain



8. The main purpose of the passage is to

(A) critique an artist’s style
(B) evaluate opposing theories
(C) reconcile conflicting arguments
(D) advocate an additional interpretation
(E) reconsider an artist in light of new discoveries