6. Explore the complex, tragic, and uniquely human behavior of suicide.

7. Appreciate the impact that such a death has on relatives and friends of the deceased

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Unit 4 Section 2Exercise 8 Stigma and impact Frida Kahlo

View the following painting, Frida Kahlo's Suicide of Dorothy Hale, commissioned of Frida Kahlo. There are two web-based images you can link to. Be sure to examine the painting and note your initial reactions and interpretation before proceeding to the study questions, which give a little more background on which to base your response to this painting.

http://www.bestpriceart.com/painting/?pid=56172

http://cgfa.sunsite.dk/kahlo/p-kahlo15.htm

Study questions

1. Describe as accurately as you can what is happening in this painting. Note the inscription which states: "In the city of New York on the 21st day of the month of October, 1938, at six o'clock in the morning, Mrs. Dorothy Hale committed suicide by throwing herself out of a very high window of the Hampshire House building. In her memory [words apparently painted out] this 'retablo,' executed by Frida Kahlo." What thoughts and feelings does the painting evoke for you?
2. Clare Boothe Luce, the mother of the woman depicted in this suicide wrote “ "I could not have requested such a gory picture of my worst enemy, much less of my unfortunate friend". Do you agree? When Clare Booth Luce commissioned a painting in memory of this young woman, what might she have wanted?