Monday Modern Art Madness #16: A new level of pain in Frida Kahlo’s “The Broken Column”.

Welp people, we have seen her everywhere, that stern uni-brow face is as ubiquitous as a Che T-shirt. I could never understand how (mostly white, middle to upper-middle class) HIPSTER art girls worship FRIDA with such a passion, having those tote bags, wearing designer Tees of her smoking with tumblr-style sleeve tattoos, etc. I did not understand until i actually looked up her body of work, and was quite surprised at the authenticity of them, in combination with her life story.

What i want to focus on her with this painting in particular, is the topic of chronic pain,  a topic I am a bit familiar with, being someone who has dealt with leg issues and Sciatica on and off for awhile. Of course my pain really pales in comparison to the life-long agony, both physically and emotionally, that Frida Kahlo suffered, pain that the vast majority of “art-hoes” and tumblr girls could not even begin to comprehend. In a way, that powerful feminist mystique (or perhaps feminine mystique might be a better word, for even the image of Frida has now been politicized), that aura of towering feminine iconography is in large part originated from the immense suffering, and triumph through suffering by turning it into beautiful artistic self-reflection, that Frida went through in her life.