Frida

Since we didn't have time to discuss the reading for "Frida," this post should address the two articles. What points do you find especially pertinent? Do you agree with their assessments of "Fridamania"? Why do you think Frida Kahlo suddenly became so popular--popular enough to generate a whole "Frida industry" and a major motion picture?


Both articles presented an interesting view into not only “Fridamania”, but also highlighting the concepts of art history and methodology as a whole in looking at either artist. This is particularly important in realizing that these concepts associated with Frida as an artist do not solely take place around her, but all artists for that matter that our culture has made an icon of. And even more important above that is that it forces us to question the way we have been viewing, labeling, and analyzing things. The greatest message that I got from Mencimer was not specifically about Frida or “Fridamania” or even women artists, but of all artist and the stereotype of the pain and suffering in their lives. For once I felt I had an answer to the larger question of where this stereotype comes rather than just acknowledging that it was there. She states on page 27, “Implicit, too, in these biopics is the notion that artists must suffer to experience the deep emotion that infuses their art.”

The next greatest point that I took, and have respected, from Mencimer’s article was that she took us through the history of the process blaming all generations and parties involved, but not stopping at our own and what we specifically are doing now in perpetuating the stereotypes. The easy way out would be to blame the feminists, but she has the greater good to take it a step further and realize that these “trend” that has turned into a fashion is ever growing beyond what feminist ideals would put in place. Press even matches this by showing us how “Fridamania” has shifted throughout these trends from generation to generation. Press states, “Frida was once celebrated as the queen of pain. But now that female misery is unfashionable (kicked out the door with so-called "victim feminism"), the current resurrection of Frida Kahlo seems like a reaction against the blandness of post-feminism”.

In regards to Julie Taymour, the film director, Frida created the icon of herself for herself long ago. My only argument against this would be that in our culture it took other icons to acknowledge Frida into fame. Frida would not be seen the way that she is today if it were not for the popularity created by icons such Madonna. What Madonna does, the people will do, because she is the people’s icon. They will dress the same, act the same, and by all means like the same art and idolize the same people. There is a trend in our culture to like the rebellious. It is seen as cool, perhaps because we are so afraid of societal judgments and for own sake to become like this, we rave over those that had the courage to do it, to be different. It is as if you idolize a person like this it somehow makes you have those qualities within yourself. It is in some ways a highlight of the flaws of our own society.


“Fridamania”, although innocent in creating a reverence for artists or art history, is the prime example of why such stereotypes of artists are perpetuated in our culture and throughout our media. It draws the viewer. If the purpose of the media is to draw an audience, and especially a specific artist for that matter, than by all means the filmmakers are doing an impeccable job. Taymour may have brought out a new stereotype of Frida different from that of the “victimized female” but is still a stereotype, and luckily for her, the popular one of this particular generation. What frustrates me most about “Fridamania” is exactly what Mencimer mentions: “The more Kahlo’s story has been told, the more it has been distorted.” Society picks the pieces of the story they enjoy and can relate to, and while there is still something to learn about our own culture throughout those depictions, my bigger question becomes: what happens to the art? We have become so overly obsessed with the artist’s story and trying to find the story in their art that we have lost the actual physical art and become more obsessed with the art within the human viewing their everyday lives as an art of its own.