Frida Kahlo: Queer Icon

Professor Andrew Lear is a world-renowned expert on sexuality in art and the author of the best-known book on sexuality in Greek vase-painting.  He is the founder of Oscar Wilde Tours, the gay history tour company, and Shady Ladies Tours, the woman's history tour company.

Andrew Lear

Frida Kahlo is a global queer icon. At this talk discover how her life, loves, and art led her to become the legend that she is today.

<h3>***<em>Can&#x27;t make the live event? No problem! All tickets give you access to a recording of the event to watch in your own time!***</em></h3><p></p><p>&quot;I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.&quot;</p><p></p><p>Frida Kahlo is responsible for some of the most arresting images of the 20th century.  At once fantastical and yet deeply real, her paintings are truly original.  Their uniqueness is owed in large part to just how unique Frida was herself.  &quot;I paint myself,&quot; she once said, &quot;because I am the subject I know best.&quot;  With every painting, Frida revealed layer upon layer of her complex personality.  &quot;Frida&#x27;s work,&quot; said artist Antonio Rodríguez, &quot;is a bleeding memory of what she has experienced, a kind of autobiography.&quot;  Every facet of her life is there to be seen, including her bisexuality.</p><p>Frida felt no shame whatsoever about her sexuality.  Beginning when she was at school, Frida&#x27;s frequent love affairs with women were passionate, intimate, and were always condoned.  She teased and flirted with Georgia O&#x27;Keeffe at Alfred Stieglitz&#x27;s gallery; she was very intimate with movie stars like María Félix; and, of course, the famous men she bedded throughout her life was a thoroughly impressively list: Isamu Noguchi, Leon Trotsky, and, not least, her husband, the world-famous muralist Diego Rivera.  As her biographer states, Frida had &quot;a hunger for intimacy so urgent that it ignored gender.&quot; Indeed, Frida&#x27;s gender ambiguity led her to expressing herself in unconventional ways.</p><p>Yet beyond her very apparent bisexual love affairs and gender ambiguity, Frida has become a queer icon for other reasons.  The way she exhibits her life and identity in her paintings, as a person who faced extraordinary adversity, creates a huge resonance with a queer audience—and this we shall explore closely.  How Frida indefatigably presents herself without compromise leads to an empowerment in the viewer, enriching the experience of witnessing her art.  Despite being painfully personal, her work is so honest, so deep as to be powerfully relatable, allowing a great diversity of people to regard Frida as a source of strength and solidarity.  Through looking at some of her most famous paintings with a queer perspective, we shall discover what it is that has made Frida become one of the world&#x27;s greatest queer icons.</p>

<h2>Speaker bio</h2><p>George Benson co-wrote the Museum of Modern Art's first ever queer tour. He has worked in various museums (including the British Museum, the V&amp;A, and the Smithsonian) for the past 9 years and is currently Education and Programs Chair for the Smithsonian's Pride Alliance. He has given multiple talks for Oscar Wilde Tours' Zoom Through Queer Culture Series, including a Queer Tour of MoMA, Queer British Art, The Downtown Queer Art Scene of the 80s, and David Hockney.</p><h2>FAQs</h2><h3>When will the Zoom invite come?</h3><p>The Zoom invite will be in your confirmation email (scroll to the bottom of the email, it's there!). If you do not receive the confirmation email, check your spam folder first, but please message us IMMEDIATELY if you don't find it and we shall send it to you directly, DO NOT WAIT until the event starts! Subsequent to the confirmation email, the Zoom invite will be sent to your email address at 48hrs, 2hrs, and 35mins before the event. PLEASE CHECK YOUR SPAM AND SOCIAL FOLDERS IF YOU DO NOT SEE THE ZOOM INVITE IN YOUR INBOX.</p><h3>Will the talk be recorded?</h3><p>The event will be recorded, and all ticket holders will receive a link to the recording by email by the evening after the presentation, with a password to access it.  It will be available to view for 2 weeks after the live event. If you do not receive the link to the recording a couple of hours after the live event please email us—sometimes Eventbrite emails can get lost in spam/social folders.</p><h3>What time zone is the talk scheduled in?</h3><p>The event is scheduled for 2pm EST (i.e. New York time). You can watch it in any time zone but please adjust to the time zone you are in.</p><h3>Refund policy?</h3><p>Refunds are available up to the start time of the event. After the start time, refunds are only available if you have been unable to access the event.</p><p></p>

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Frida Kahlo: Queer Icon

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Frida Kahlo: Queer Icon

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