INDIA. Kolkata: Frida (Frida Kahlo) is someone who is close to everyone’s heart. Like a goddess, she is referred to by her first name only. Madonna, Isabella Rossellini, and Cindy Crawford are fans. She has captivated everyone from scholars writing dissertations to Chicano muralists, fashion designers, feminists, artists, and homosexuals. Everywhere you go in Mexico, you will see Frida Kahlo. Her face, famous for the lovely unibrow and direct, badass stare, is imprinted on walls, bags, posters, and t-shirts. Every art inclined person is obsessed with Frida. “Feet, what do I want them for if I have wings to fly,” these magical words enunciated by Frida define the iconic painter in more ways than one. Free-spirited and unorthodox, she is revered as a female role model who took on the taboos of her day. Frida, known for her self-portraits was a feminist who broke societal norms by embracing her deformities.
She set her own trend by sporting a unibrow, a moustache, and unique headgear. Kahlo’s story begins in 1907. She was born to Magdalena Carmen Frieda in Mexico City. Kahlo’s father was a German photographer. Frida contracted polio around the age of 6 and she was bedridden for the next nine months. The illness damaged her right leg and foot and left her with a limp and this was just the beginning of a life full of setbacks, one that Frida immortalised in her work. The magic realism queen’s life was full of tribulations unimaginable to most people; Frida still lived life on her own terms, unrestricted and like a free bird.
To celebrate the 114th Birth Anniversary of the Queen of Magic Realism eminent singer and painter, Soumita Saha has organised a Solo Exhibition titled “Ruminating Frida.” Ruminating Frida is a Virtual Solo Exhibition by Soumita because of the COVID situation. The iconic Mexican painter turns Soumita’s Muse where Frida can be seen in different art forms coruscating Soumita’s canvas.
Soumita who is quite vocal about being an ardent Frida fan says “She taught us self-love and acceptance, this is evident in her self-image portraits where she sports a unibrow as well as a moustache. Such an image does not conform to a patriarchal society’s image of a woman who has perfectly shaped eyebrows and definitely no moustache. She preached the beauty of Aberrant. I have seen painters who are the epitome of perfection but very few are brilliant painters of themselves, things that came to their mind and portraying pain and Aberrant things beautifully.”
Ms. Saha, herself is a popular singer and painter. Her artwork not only gets exhibited in different cities in India but also outside India. Her artwork was displayed at Portland’s Artreach Gallery in November 2020.
Ruminating Frida starts on Frida’s Birth Anniversary 6 July 2021 and shall continue till 13 July 2021, her Death Anniversary.
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