About the Artist Cheat-Sheet Series: Perhaps you’ve lamented the fact that your love of Picasso won’t help you in the pursuit of living with art, but with a bit of guidance you can start to develop your taste on current art based on your preferences of “famous” art.
In this series I match major artists of the 19th or 20th century with current independent artists who share the artist’s style, subject, tone, etc. You’ll no longer have the excuse of not knowing any current, affordable artists you like!
Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter from the first half of the 20th century who I consider a feminist artist. Her work is highly personal, exploring the often female subjects of pain and immobility (from a devastating streetcar accident at age 16), love, loss, infertility and heartbreak. Frida was a communist and was highly involved in politics during her lifetime (she even notoriously had an affair with political refuge, Leon Trotsky). Her life was full of drama, passion and physical and psychological pain, and these themes underscore much of her work as an artist.
Current artists whose work is reminiscent of Kahlo’s…
Megan Campbell
Common themes: nature, primitivism, love, ceremony.
.
.
Elsa Mora
Common themes: women, symbolism (heart, snakes), body parts as living entities.
.
.
Caitlin Keegan
Common themes: traditional women’s work, gender roles.
.
Common themes: vulnerability, adornment, masks, death.
.
.
Lily Piri
Common themes: vulnerability, our relationship with personal possessions.
.
Olaf Hajek
Common themes: nature, the exotic, primitivism, sadness.
.
.
Julia Selin
Common themes: motherhood, life, the human body.
.
.
Rachel Bone
Common themes: Women’s complicated relationships with each other, adornment (patterns).
.
.
Caitlin Quiet
Common themes: love, heartbreak, femininity, memories.
.
.
Amy Kligman
Common themes: dreams, the ornamental/symbolic (flowers, cake).
.
.
Iviva Olenick
Common themes: traditional women’s work, gender roles, female suffering.
.
Pia Bramley
Common themes: the female body, everyday life.
.
Explore previous Artist Cheat-Sheets: