FRIDAMANIA

Mexican artist FRIDA KAHLO, who pioneered a century of womanhood that still resonates explosively today, is currently celebrated in an exhibition at the Palais Galliera in Paris.

- STEPHEN SHORT

To those not overly acquainted with the worlds of art and fashion - and to some of those who are how well do we really know Mexican artist and feminist icon Frida Kahlo, she of the exotic face and flamboyant fashion, endlessly replicated across plates, T-shirts, and tote bags in every global museum and gallery gift shop? After all, no lesser mortal than Madonna, 21st-century reinvention of Frida, owns six of Kahlo's works, and sings aspirational lyrics such as "If I were a painter, I'd be Frida Kahlo". Yet by invoking Frida's legacy, the 60-year-old Madonna might also be appealing for a slice of Kahlo's youth. The Mexican painter died comparatively young (she was 47) and, much like actors James Dean and Marilyn Monroe, enshrined her legacy as an ageless cultural icon in the public domain. Why then, in Mexico, do locals call Frida Kahlo "the heroine of pain"?

Kahlo's physical misfortune dictated the course of her life, and art. Born in Mexico in 1907, she developed poliomyelitis by the age of six, her right leg atrophied and her foot stopped growing. At 18, she was involved in an horrific traffic accident; her spinal column and pelvis were broken in three places; she broke her collarbone and two ribs; her right leg, the one deformed by polio, fractured in 11 places, and her right foot was dislocated and crushed. She was hospitalised for a month and went on to have more than 30 operations in her lifetime.