Everybody in the world now seems to be a fan of Frida’s and I wonder — this tormented soul, this devoted lover, wife and heartbroken woman of a dashed wedlock — were she alive today, what would she think of her legion of devotees? She suffered physically and emotionally so much in her life and some of her most surrealistic paintings show her broken spine, her blood, her beating heart, her miscarriages and her other organs in specific detail. Some of Frida’s paintings slop over onto their frames with spots and splashes of blood.

Most of Frida’s works are jewel-like, perfect in detail, some painted on tin in the manner of Mexican folk art. There is one large painting in the show: Frida before and Frida after one of her breakups with her famous painter husband, Diego Rivera, holding her own hands. (This was after Rivera fell in love with the Mexican movie star María Félix.)

The painting of Frida holding her own hand, "Twin Fridas"

I still like best of all in the show Frida’s very young self portrait, where she looks so innocent and virginal. This exhibition made me want to go back to see Salma Hayek in the 2002 film “Frida,” for which she almost — and should have — won the Academy Award. The movie played along in the Philadelphia Museum with the paintings.


My favorite of the young Frida

This show has moved on to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, opening June 14th, and I urge you to go out of your way to see it if at all possible. It will be there until September 16 and then I assume Mexico will bring it home.

This show of paintings is the kind of experience that makes you say, “What a woman!”

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