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A SYMBOL OF RESISTANCE AND HEROISM Richard Embrey
THE FRIDA KAHLO EXHIBITION
There are art exhibitions on all the time in London and around the UK. Some of great art, some are of interesting artists, but some are both and memorable. The current Frida Kahlo exhibition at the Tate is great and shows how popular this artist was and still is. Kahlo’s image has become a symbol of resistance and heroism, but the full story is more complicated.
The Tate Modern’s exhibition, which opened in June, is titled Frida: The Making of an Icon. Her life and reputation has and is close to that of a saint as she is universally admired for her ‘life.’ However, the full story is more shocking, as she was a sharp-tongued, scandalously rude, a regular drug user, heavy drinker, intoxicating flirt and committed communist. This part of her life has been ignored or forgotten in the Tate’s official stance of “The idea of Frida being universally accessible and inspiring is not something to be apologetic for. It speaks to the extraordinary range of artists and communities she has inspired: Chicana art, feminist movements, disability arts, queer culture, and constituencies all over the world who have claimed her as their own.”
This is deemed fine and we accept that and it happens a lot. We all love Ozzy Osbourne, Keith Richards and other rock stars for their music and persona; at the same time putting aside their wild and dangerous lifestyle at times. Art in general is mostly considered on its artistic merit, rather than who painted it, with a few exceptions.
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Kahlo’s work is shown alongside that of other artists, as well as generations of artists she has inspired. Such as Rio Yañez, a graphic artist who draws “Ghetto Frida”, a character who has tattoos reading “Diego” at her neck and “Trotsky” at her armpit. He says “I used Ghetto Frida as a vehicle to satirise Frida’s commercialisation and get my licks in at the art world at the same time,” A classic print of Kahlo hung on the wall of Yañez’s family’s home in San Francisco’s Bay Area, “as it did in the homes of so many Chicanos, artists, leftists, radical queers and Mexicans”.
ENTERTAINMENT ART GUIDE
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