For this instalment of Women Who Inspire Me, I’m bringing you an artist! I haven’t had an artist on my list for months (back when I profiled Georgia O’Keefe).
I wrote last year about this particular woman and touched upon some reasons why I like her and I can’t wait to get to go into it in a bit more depth.
Frida Kahlo
We can probably all picture one of Frida’s self-portraits. But did you know that she lived in constant physical pain, underwent 35 surgeries and suffered multiple miscarriages? Frida was unimaginably strong, smart, talented and stylish.
One of the things that I love about Frida is that she was unapologetically herself. She was unapologetic about her bisexuality; about her feminism; about her views on equality or politics. She was a rebel who defied gender stereotypes. She was an atheist, a Mexican patriot and a communist.
She believed in jolie laide, or beautiful ugly; she “highlighted her flaws to vindicate the beauty of imperfections”, pencilling her monobrow darker with Revlon eyeliner, which seems to fit in with the current movement of body positivity well.
(And as a fun side note: She could win in tequila drinking challenges against much bigger men. Also other side note: does anyone else remember when Theresa May wore a quite prominent statement bracelet with Frida on it? I still think it’s weird…)
Frida was hugely intelligent. She was studying to be a doctor, when he was in a near-fatal trolley accident that left her in pain for the rest of her life. An iron handrail impaled her through the pelvis along with many, many other injuries. Whilst she was immobile recovering, she started self-portraiture using a mirror across her bed, and then fell into art.
She had affairs with some of the most prominent people in power, celebrities and thinkers of the time: from Nickolas Murray to Leon Trotsky to Josephine Baker (allegedly). And I can’t fail to mention her famous husband, Diego Rivera. Her life, whilst filled with pain, had some phenomenal highlights.
Frida is most famous for all her self-portraits and I love her fearless exploration of herself. She was groundbreaking as a female artist to outwardly display her pain and frustration. I love that she fought a prevailing stereotype at the time that men could be depressed or melancholic, but that women were hysterical or crazy and pressed back against the gendering of emotions. I love that she doesn’t shy away from the grotesque and that honesty shines through her work.
She had a relatively short life but her artistic accomplishments are huge. Her painting, Dos desnudos en el bosque (La tierra misma), sold for over $8 million. That’s the highest auction price for any work by a Latin American artist.
There’s an amazing looking Frida exhibition at the V&A this summer that I really, really want to try to go to. Givenchy, Valentino and Dolce & Gabanna have all had Frida-inspired lines, so I’d love to compare their influences to her belongings at the exhibition.
Here are some of my favourite Frida quotes:
“Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?”
“I think that little by little I’ll be able to solve my problems and survive.”
“At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.”
“i was born a bitch.
I was born a painter.”
“I tried to drown my sorrows, but the bastards learned how to swim, and now I am overwhelmed by this decent and good feeling.”
What artists inspire you?
Read similar posts:
Women Who Inspire Me #1: Joan Didion
A Christmas Gift Guide for Your Favourite Feminist
Women Who Inspire Me #2: Sylvia Plath
Feminist Reads for Every Age
Women Who Inspire Me #3: Georgia O’Keeffe
Women Who Inspire Me #4: Ruth Bader Ginsburg
My Feminism Journey
Women Who Inspire me #5: Audre Lorde
Women Who Inspire Me #6 Roxane Gay
Women Who Inspire Me #7 My mom
