The Miracle of Saint Frida

When Frida Kahlo dies, in 1954, she is soon forgotten. And then, suddenly, she is everywhere: on magnets, puzzles, underwear, flip-flops. How did this remarkable artist become an international icon, an emoji, a figure of fervid devotion? And what does she mean to those who believe?

You can see Yasumasa Morimura's "An Inner Dialogue with Frida Kahlo," mentioned in the show, here in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Have you heard Frida Kahlo talk? Neither has anyone else—not since she died, in 1954. Unless it turns out that this is actually her on a recording surfaced a couple years ago by the National Sound Library of Mexico.

(This episode first aired May 10, 2021.)