This subject is so large that it will be written over a number of blogs, here is the first.
Some years ago, I visited Frida Kahlo’s house Casa Azul (The Blue House) and where she and her husband had separate house-studios built by the concept architect Juan O’Gorman. Both (seen below) are in Mexico City, the Blue House in Colonia del Carmen and the house-studio complex in Colonia San Angel. The queues for these museums, even on a Sunday, were fairly small and there was plenty of space to look at the exhibits and to take photographs.
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What has happened in the intervening years is quite phenomal, the surge of interest in Kahlo verges on obsessive and she now eclipses her then very famous husband, the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera.
What is behind this mania and I wonder what Kahlo would think about it if she was alive today, would she approve or be horrified at the thought of Frida Christmas tree dolls (selling at the Victoria & Albert Museum) and look-a-like Frida competitions held in many countries?
I ponder on this phenomenon which has driven her goddess like, well beyond the boundaries of art enthusiasts yet I do not have an answer. All I can do is to explore facets of her life and contrast with contemporary society to try and see where there is a connection.
Even if the primary answer is leveraging the Kahlo brand for naked commercial purposes, it does not explain why her life, art, values and politics resonate today with so many people worldwide.
Is part of the reason for her fame similar to that of other icons such as Munroe and Dean who died young and their death, especially the former, not satisfactorily explained with a whiff of conspiracy in the air and lives cut short – with yet more greatness to be fulfilled (or had the best already been achieved)? Whilst Kahlo, who died at the age of 47 in 1954, was in poor health at the time. She had been on a political rally just days before and it has been suggested that her death was aided as she was in so much pain. Her friend Tina Modotti, the photographer and political activist died in 1942 from congestive heart failure at the age of 45 in Mexico City whilst in a taxi, though some say the circumstances for her death were suspicious.
📷Even Prime Ministers want to show their solidarity with Kahlo as a woman of the people. Theresa May during her rather disastrous (she had a bad cold and had just lost a majority in parliament as a result of poor judgement and/or bad advice) 2017 Conservative Party conference speech wore a Kahlo decorated bracelet. Apart from the possibility that she just liked the bracelet, what (political) message was she trying to send to the eagle eyed spotters. A number of theories have been proposed (including feminism, independence from men and resilience) but the one I like the most is, as with Kahlo, perhaps she thinks that she is not being recognised (or appreciated) in her time!
By any standards Kahlo was a complex person, apart from her exceptional and personalised art she was highly political, a member of the communist party yet she grew up in a very middle class family. Her husband was extremely successful in his day; only second to Picasso in international reputation. He was also a communist, yet wealthy. Kahlo’s sense of fashion was drawn from indigenous culture was unique on the world stage yet she was half European on her Father’s side. The recent (very successful) exhibition on her at the V&A was aptly and cleverly called Kahlo, Making Her Self Up (unlocking Frida Kahlo’s wardrobe). Apart from the obvious, this title has other deeper and psychological connotations - will the real Frida Kahlo please stand up!
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