Madonna, fervent fan of the life and works of Frida Kahlo

Singer-songwriter Madonna says she is a fervent fan of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, the artistic symbol of female liberation worldwide, an admiration she has shown on many occasions and did so again with her latest music video and on the 112th anniversary last Saturday of the painter’s birth.

“God Control” is the latest musical work by Madonna, 60, and in it, besides seeking to raise awareness about arms control in the United States with a new look at the 2016 Pulse gay-bar slaughter, appears a picture of Frida (1907-1954) hung on the wall of a room where the singer is seated behind a typewriter.

Though the exact significance of that small image is unknown since the rest of the video has no relation to the Mexican artist nor anything from her world, the image gains importance because of the multiple gestures of admiration that the “Queen of Pop” has dedicated to Frida.

For example, last July 6 on the 112th anniversary of the birth of the artist who was married to another artist, Diego Rivera, Madonna posted a photomontage of the work “The Two Fridas” in which the two hold hands and their hearts are connected.

Together with that image is a photo of the daughter of the American singer dressed as Frida and a text that says “Happy Birthday Frida Kahlo...Madame X...eternal Muse.”

However, this fascination is nothing new in Madonna’s artistic career, who in the late 1980s began her claim to fame in Soho, the scene of New York’s avant-garde, and at the end of that decade acquired her first work by Frida Kahlo, the musical journalist Ricardo Pineda told EFE in an interview.

Even so, the attachment grew, according to the expert, with the release of the 2015 disc “Rebel Heart,” whose cover shows Madonna herself with multiple strings on her face, just like an image of Frida that the US singer shared on social networks.

“This is a revealing story. The cover is a very direct reference, she has never said it was that way but has given many hints. She’s been asked and she says it’s not a direct reference but yes, Frida is a real inspiration for what she wants to get across,” Pineda said.

The journalist thought the origin of her passion stemmed from Frida’s power of communication and the rebellion she exhibited throughout her life, both in breaking away from artistic tradition and an “intimate search” for the basis of feminism.

“Frida’s search is an awakening...and that made a click with Madonna,” he said.

But Madonna wasn’t the only one to mention Frida on social networks. Other figures from the world of the arts and entertainment like Mexican actress Salma Hayek showed their admiration for the painter, one of the Mexican women most famous and idolized around the world.

Not only for her art is she revered, but also “for her life and how she faced the pain” of her terrible and eventually fatal illness, Pineda said.

Madonna is an art collector with more than $100 million invested and always dreamed of buying works by the Mexican painter, whose work “My Birth” is hung on a wall of her home. EFE-EPA ia/cd