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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to think most people know who Frida Kahlo is?

325 replies

morefalafel · 07/03/2014 15:53

If you saw a picture of Frida Kahlo, you would recognise this person? Or AIBU?

OP posts:
wtf1981 · 07/03/2014 22:45

Another no here.

wtf1981 · 07/03/2014 22:45

Another no here.

Scarletohello · 07/03/2014 22:46

Was wondering if she was a question on 'Pointless' how many people would get her? 20 max I would guess!

WillieWaggledagger · 07/03/2014 22:48

frida kahlo's work is very important in terms of the experiences of women

i have to say i loathe tamara de lempicka's work, though i don't know very much about it or her beyond being able to recognise her style. it feels so cold and superficial (i realise that may well be the point)

Nocomet · 07/03/2014 22:55

Have googled, Oh dear, sorry looks like a load of pretentious try hard bollocks to me.

bonkersLFDT20 · 07/03/2014 22:56

Yes I knew he she was from the photo. Had never heard of her until I saw the film, which I really enjoyed.

MadAsFish · 07/03/2014 23:00

Yes, I do, in detail. Very tragic life, and took faar too much shit from that ugly abusive frog Rivera.
I gave up buying the Hayden Herrera biography after the second copy was stolen from me; the borrower denied ever seeing it.

WillieWaggledagger · 07/03/2014 23:01

she had a nasty accident when young and lived in almost constant pain. she was unable to have children as a result of the injuries, and lost several pregnancies in really traumatic ways. her paintings express her physical and mental pain. given that, i think 'pretentious and try hard bollocks' is rather a harsh assessment whether you appreciate her work or not

BackforGood · 07/03/2014 23:53

I just asked dd (who is in Yr10 - that's 15 for the OP of the other thread Wink) and she said "yeah, she's an artist we had to study in Yr8"

See, when I was at school, 'Year 8' hadn't been invented, let alone studying this particular artist.

Nocomet · 08/03/2014 00:25

For me art has to appeal without knowing the back story. I deliberately googled her paintings not her biography.

She may have found them cathartic to paint, but that doesn't make them good art.

Burren · 08/03/2014 00:43

The abuse of the expression 'try hard' never ceases to amaze me. Do you not think artists should 'try hard' to do good work, nocomet? Or just dash something off on the way to the pub?

Yes, it would surprise me that anyone wouldn't recognise FK. Even if you have no interest in art, her life was colourful, her appearance is memorable, and the look of both her paintings and her self-presentation are often referenced in pop culture. The Toast clothes catalogue this season has models styled to look like FK wearing bright clashing floral dresses.

cafecito · 08/03/2014 00:51

I'm amazed people don't innately recognise her. sigh.

DS has a huge FK pic in his room, he is 4

NigellasDealer · 08/03/2014 00:57

how could anyone have an 'innate' recognition of any artist? Confused

inborn; natural.
"her innate capacity for organization"
synonyms: inborn, natural, inbred, congenital, inherent, intrinsic, instinctive, intuitive, spontaneous, unlearned, untaught

when my children were tiny they had Marc Chagall prints all over the wall, doesn't mean they know anything about him now, they were just nice pix.

tbh i only know about FK after proofreading and editing a long essay all about her.

SinisterBuggyMonth · 08/03/2014 00:58

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Burren · 08/03/2014 01:00

God, Nigellasdealer, your children had high-class walls. My toddler has a Winnie the Pooh print and an old Pixies poster Grin

NigellasDealer · 08/03/2014 01:01

Grin only cos I had a load of old Sotheby's catalogues that got cut up.
Fab pix tho'

Deckmyballs · 08/03/2014 01:01

Yabu! Wow!

cafecito · 08/03/2014 01:03

I cant get it off him, I have tried

I think environment can create innate pattern recognition and set perception. Perhaps I am surprised that so many are not aware of her as she is distinctive

WillieWaggledagger · 08/03/2014 01:06

"Good art"

Therein lies a long debate!

NigellasDealer · 08/03/2014 01:13

yes but cafecito 'innate' means you are born with something, it is there already (sorry feeling pedantic)

JapaneseMargaret · 08/03/2014 01:15

I'm surprised by this thread and the number of people who've never heard of her.

I'm from the colonies and never studied art or art history at school and I've heard of her. Her image is - I thought - iconic.

I would've said YANBU, but turns out you're completely U!

Who knew...

cafecito · 08/03/2014 01:26

obviously I am now classing unibrow alongside fundamental survival cues in my theory there, and I failed to mention I half grew up in mexico, so you are right to feel pedantic

However I think I am surprised that seemingly so many people have one through their lives without exposure to FK, whether it be photographic, in films, on TV, on tube posters, or even through more subtle cues such as snippets of a radio show, a glimpsed 1 minute of a Gok variant show back in 2004 using FK as their inspiration. I think that these social and visual or auditory blended cues contribute significantly to neural networks and synapse firing, making the recognition of FK as innate as the recognition of the taj mahal, or a bumble bee, for instance.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3278713/

www.cns.nyu.edu/~david/courses/perception/lecturenotes/recognition/recognition.html

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22360676

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9835396

NigellasDealer · 08/03/2014 01:28

Grin nobody has an innate recognition of the Taj Mahal

BillyBanter · 08/03/2014 01:30

YABU, you surely know you are. When I was living in Glasgow a couple of people didn't know who Charles Rennie Mackintosh was!

She has become a bit more famous in recent years. I was wondering on another thread if her image has inspired a fashion for drawing on thick eyebrows.

cafecito · 08/03/2014 01:36

No the added facial recognition programming is neonates, once seen this is an innate intrinsic ability of the brain or the mind to retrieve and link data effectively. with the particular cultural significance and even her images on book covers for example, I maintain my position that I am surprised that so many have never encountered her, visual representations of her, auditory descriptors and so forth even without knowing anything of her history and without knowing anything about art.

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