Final answer:
The Mexican artist who painted the self-portrait of a woman wearing a lace hood around her face is Frida Kahlo. Her self-portraits often incorporate elements of Mexican folk art and explore complex topics, including her personal afflictions and cultural identity.
Step-by-step explanation:
The self-portraits of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo are renowned for their indelible marks of her facial hair and the authentic reflection of her personal pain and experiences. Through her art, Kahlo defied traditional beauty standards and refracted the pain of her medical conditions, her culturally mixed heritage, and the repression of women in society at that time. As a pivotal figure in Mexican art, she also depicted the influence of Mexican folk art and culture in her work, often dressing in traditional indigenous clothing, such as the attire of the Tehuana women, who symbolized strength and equality.
Self-Portrait as a Tehuana is a prime example of Kahlo's powerful self-representation and her use of cultural clothing to communicate her identity and emotions. In the wake of her divorce from Diego Rivera, Kahlo's self-portraits also began to express her pain and resilience, as demonstrated in works like The Two Fridas and The Broken Column. The former, The Two Fridas, showcases two contrasting versions of herself post-divorce, while The Broken Column directly visualizes her physical and emotional suffering with stark imagery.