¡Viva Frida!

Frida Kahlo would be 103 years old today. She is ageless, timeless, irrepressible and fresh even to this day. So much passion and emotion in each painting. Such color and vividness. This is a woman who lived and loved and hurt.

¡Que viva Frida!

I confess, however, that the first time I saw a Frida Kahlo painting I wasn't sure what to think. And a part of me recoiled in horror from the raw emotion. It was "The Two Fridas" (1939), a roller coaster of an image with bleeding hearts as it were and a sisterhood is powerful subtext. What was I supposed to think?

¡Que viva Frida!

Over the years, I grew to love her more. She had ganas to paint her pain as art and she was in your face, like it or not. How else to explain "My Birth" (1932) of her stillborn child?

¡Que viva Frida!

Her tumultuous relationship with fellow painter and marvelous muralist Diego Rivera informed her art. Is it fair to say that without Diego there is no Frida?  Sounds sexist but it's true. Look at "Diego and I" (1949). I think Frida is saying so. It's also fair to say that Frida has surpassed Diego in stature. And I think el gordo would agree.

¡Que viva Frida!