Frida Kahlo's 100th

June 18, 2007 12:53 PM

"I have had two accidents in my life - the streetcar crash and Diego Rivera." To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Frida Kahlo's birth, the largest ever exhibition of her work is taking place. Frida has been the subject of or inspiration for movies (most recently, this lovely one, although not without some controversy), books (this biography is quite good), a postage stamp, and a brand of tequila (more controversy). People have been interested in her socialist politics and possible victim status. There is an online fan club. She was also featured in Smithsonian Magazine. If anything, Frida was always outspoken.

posted by lilywing13 (12 comments total)

I haven't had a chance to look at all the articles but that one from the Mises Institute (the "some" link) is so terribly written I can't even stand it. It is ridiculously bad partisan propaganda masquerading as some sort of intellectual analysis of socialism. My favorite part:
In particular, Stalin, it is said, was merely a gangster writ large. Stalin was, indeed, a gangster writ large.
The author, Clifford Thies, was, it is said, a douchebag. Thies is, in fact, a douchebag.
posted by papakwanz at 1:03 PM on June 18, 2007 [2 favorites]

Kahlo previously on MeFi.
posted by languagehat at 1:07 PM on June 18, 2007

Sorry, just noticed that my comment is a bit confusing. It is badly written and bad propaganda. The quote was an example of the former; I'm not trying to defend Stalin. That is all.
posted by papakwanz at 1:08 PM on June 18, 2007

languagehat, thank you for including that link. I knew I had forgotten something.
posted by lilywing13 at 1:11 PM on June 18, 2007

The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo is worth a look. Also, one time mefite Blake Leyh did the sound design for Taymor's Frida.
posted by vronsky at 1:39 PM on June 18, 2007

(.
(.\8747;

posted by AmberV at 1:57 PM on June 18, 2007

Well, that looked substantially more exciting in Live Preview!
posted by AmberV at 1:58 PM on June 18, 2007

I'm currently convincing my wife that we need to go down and eat at Frida's in downtown Madison this evening. If any other Mefites are around, we should all raise a toast.
posted by thanotopsis at 2:23 PM on June 18, 2007

Frida Kahlo is the most amazing woman ever!
posted by homodigitalis at 2:24 PM on June 18, 2007

papakwanz, Ludwig van Mises was one of the fathers of the "we'd be anarcho-capitalists except we're just barely bright enough to understand what happens to property when there's no cops" school of economics, so it's no surprise that the Mises Institute piece is worthless.
posted by Pope Guilty at 2:25 PM on June 18, 2007

"In reality Kahlo wore three or four socks on the thin calf and her right shoe was built up to compensate for the smaller limb."
My friend who had polio wonders how long it took her to figure that out. He wears 3 socks on one foot, to make his tiny foot fit the same size shoe as the good foot. (It's a matter of pride with polio victims to wear two shoes that match; that are the same size. It makes it less obvious.)
That's just for background.
posted by unrepentanthippie at 6:38 PM on June 18, 2007

Thanks for a good collection of links, lilywing13 - nice first post.
posted by madamjujujive at 3:01 AM on June 19, 2007