(PNS reporting from SILICON VALLEY) In honor of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo’s 105th birthday Friday, Google is featuring a special Google Doodle commemorating her contributions to international art.
Born on July 6, 1907, Kahlo was a surrealist painter and smoker who is best known for her brilliant self-portraits, her tragic life and her stormy relationships with such global figures as Diego Rivera, Leon Trotsky and Josephine Baker.
Kahlo was known to be uncompromising in her art, her politics and her famous monobrow, which launched a feminist revival and Fridamania craze in the 1990s and also extended the co-ed bisexual experimentation stage from one to two semesters.
The Fridamania craze is single-handedly responsible for raising the value of Mexican art, creating the crafting industry, filling the cash registers of mainstream museum stores and popularizing the Mexican peasant look among Chicana Studies PhD’s.
The Frida craze also skyrocketed sales of cobalt- and mango-colored house paint, launched the “Caucasian Mexican Food Expert” industry and restored Mexico’s global reputation as an arty, cosmopolitan and sexy place.
Kahlo is notable as the only Mexican icon to actually be portrayed by a Mexican actress in a Hollywood movie. Her 2002 Oscar-winning biopic starred Salma Hayek, in one of the few roles she does not play a stripper. In order to achieve the artists’ iconic monobrow, Hayek reportedly did not shave her eyebrow for an entire week.
In addition to the Google Doodle, the search engine features two fun Frida-related items.
When users click on the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button, Google will call up links to Craigslist and dating website profiles listing Frida Kahlo as a preference.
Also, an image search of Frida Kahlo will present an option to rank paintings in order of ability to inspire an undergraduate female crush.
Mexican artist and Guaca-Rock icon Sergio Arau sings a rollicking tribute called “Mi Frida Sufrida.”
Image: The Two Fridas (1939) by Frida Kahlo
Video: “Mi Frida Sufrida” by Sergio Arau y la Venganza de Moctezuma
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