Happy Birthday Frida!

Google celebrated the 103rd birthday of Frida Kahlo on Tuesday by adding some changes to a self-portrait of Frida and using it for the day's search engine logo. Google artists enhanced a 1940 self-portrait by taking out the horns on her head and giving her a bone necklace similar to the one she wears in another self-portrait (minus the blood dripping down her neck). Frida Kahlo has painted many portraits of personal suffering.

The tradition of creating Google "doodles" on its search engine page dates back to 1999. Since then, special occasions, holidays, important events, and notable people have been celebrated on its page through art.

Image Source: Google

Online Source: Los Angeles Times, Google

Daily Headlines: September 23, 2009

* Chile: The border dispute between Bolivia and Chile has heated up over “a highland stream” that flows through the Atacama desert.

* Mexico: Representatives of the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Trust filed a lawsuit yesterday regarding over 1200 pieces of allegedly forged Kahlo art that appeared in a pair of books.

* Haiti: Mourners in Miami paid remembrance to an 8-month-old girl who died with eight other Haitian migrants at sea last May.

* Latin America: According to some counternarcotics officials in the Americas, “at least nine top-tier Latin American drug cartels have established bases in 11 West African nations.”

Image- New York Times (“Licancabur volcano towers above the high desert Andean plain on the Chilean-Bolivian border.”)
Online Sources- AP, LAHT, CNN, Reuters

Happy birthday Frida Kahlo!

Today is the birthday of renown Mexican artist Frida Kahlo; she would’ve celebrated her 100^th birthday had she been alive (she died in 1954).

Kahlo’s work is being prominently featured in museums around the world:

• Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes museum is highlighting an exhibit of nearly 350 pieces of Kahlo’s work.
• Museums in Philadelphia, San Francisco, and other U.S cities are displaying paintings and related works by Kahlo.
• Even Kahlo’s home-la Caza Azul- will display items including personal correspondence between her and her lover, artist Diego Rivera.

Undoubtedly, Kahlo is still viewed as one of the 20^th century’s preeminent artists and the breadth of her work has been even more appreciated since the 2002 film “Frida” starring Salma Hayek. Kahlo’s work provides a keenly introspective look at herself as well as her Mexican heritage. Surely her work will be enjoyed for many decades more.

Image- BBC News (“The Two Fridas” by Frida Kahlo)

Source (Spanish)- El Diario/La Prensa

Sources (English)- IMDB.com, Wikipedia, Scotsman, International Herald Tribune