http://bit.ly/1LSmpsr Happy Birthday Frida Kahlo. She's long gone of course. This month will mark the 61st anniversary of her passing. Plagued by contradictions and illnesses, her short life has endured in our memory thanks in equal parts to the copious amount of work that she created and the mythology that she encouraged.
If you have any doubt about Frida Kahlo's ongoing significance to modern audiences then you need only look around you. Around the world actually. New York's Botanical Garden is presenting a show built on the concept of recreating Kahlo's garden. A show in London exhibits her personal belongings in a similar attempt to offer up some insight.
Last year's blockbuster exhibit in Rome had already attracted 300,000 visitors a week before its closure. This after a similar blockbuster exhibit had already visited France and the UK.
If you have any doubt about Frida Kahlo's ongoing significance to modern audiences then you need only look around you. Around the world actually. New York's Botanical Garden is presenting a show built on the concept of recreating Kahlo's garden. A show in London exhibits her personal belongings in a similar attempt to offer up some insight.
Last year's blockbuster exhibit in Rome had already attracted 300,000 visitors a week before its closure. This after a similar blockbuster exhibit had already visited France and the UK.
Detroit's Institute of Arts is just winding up its own exhibit dedicated to Frida and Diego Rivera (a show based on the artists' own time spent in Detroit).
For someone for whom life and death was so important artistically, it strikes me that this ongoing fascination we have with Frida's life long after her death seems almost logical, even if it would be nice to see those kinds of resources invested in shows about new and/or contemporary artists.
Look around you - you'll see how much Frida still looms large in cultural life. On a recent trip back to Melbourne I was struck by just how much people still love her and make reference to her.
For someone for whom life and death was so important artistically, it strikes me that this ongoing fascination we have with Frida's life long after her death seems almost logical, even if it would be nice to see those kinds of resources invested in shows about new and/or contemporary artists.
Look around you - you'll see how much Frida still looms large in cultural life. On a recent trip back to Melbourne I was struck by just how much people still love her and make reference to her.
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