"Mourners gathered on July 13, 1954 to watch the cremation of the world's greatest and most shocking painter. Soon to be an international icon, Frida Kahlo knew how to give her fans one last frightening goodbye. As the cries of her admirers filled the room, the sudden blast of heat from the open incinerator doors blew her body bolt upright. Her hair, now on fire from the flames, blazed around her head like a halo. Frida's lips appeared to break into a seductive grin just as the doors closed shut. Her last diary entry read
'I hope the leaving is joyful and I hope never to return.'
Frida was 47 on the day she died."
http://members.aol.com/fridanet/kahlo.htm
So it goes.
You gotta go sooner or later.
Or more like when a goddess goes
from this world to thee next
its a big flame that Roars!
"Stechler: So what does Frida actually leave behind in that case? I mean, why are we still talking about her?
Fuentes: Well, we are talking about a resurrected artist, you see. Because she was forgotten for a very, very long time after her death. She was not considered. And suddenly she comes back. She comes back on the wake a lot of the feminist movement, no? Of the search for icons for feminism. But along with that it is discovered that you had a great forgotten artist. An artist with a unique personality. That really resembled…you can invoke all kinds of influences, but you cannot, you cannot supplant the personality of Frida Kahlo. It is very much hers. You recognize the Frida Kahlo painting anywhere in the world. So whatever the reasons for her present popularity, what is the basic fact that a great artist has been recognized worldwide, universal. I think she's even on matchboxes now, hum?"
The Life and times of Frida Kahlo __
Excerpt from an interview with filmmaker Amy Stechler and author/historian Carlos Fuentes.
