Frida Kahlo is one of my all time favorite visual artists. I suppose that it is a cliche to say that now as Frida's images saturate greeting cards, pop art, websites, books, and everything else. Everyone has seen the movie. She was a genius-creative and a wounded left-leaning revolutionary, who made fantastic paintings and lived an admirable and interesting life (in my book, anyway).
It's always a catch-22 when someone you've long admired becomes part of the collective consciousness and moves the masses, or at least becomes familiar to the masses. Usually, I lose a little of my lust for the art or the person when that happens-- like the revival of interest in The Beat generation. Jack Kerouac in chinos for the Gap. Bleh.
I don't just like her because she was a lady painter. Frida owns a little piece of love from me for being a pinko commie revolutionary and making great work, which is so visually interesting, feminist, agonizing, funny, and rich with symbology. Steve and I saw the retrospective of her work at The Walker Art Center in 2007. It was intense. From the crowds, jostling for position in front of her work with their headphones to hear about the specific work to the sheer volume of pieces and the intensity of the work itself. Wowsa.
Here's the terrifying bus scene from the movie done by The Brothers Quay.
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