Long Live Frida

Jenny Shimizu for Vogue editorial

Frida Kahlo, Self-portrait, 1930

Jenny Shimizu for Vogue editorial

Frida Kahlo, Time Flies, 1929

Making Waves

Carrie Marill, Hot Water, 2009

Hokusai's Great Wave of Kanagawa (see below) is one of the most iconic and celebrated images of Japanese art. The woodblock print portrays foamy waves that frame the snow-capped cone of Mount Fuji in the far distance. True to the spirit of Asian art, there is an innate harmony or poetic rhythm within the imagery. The aggressive energy of the wave is married with perfect balance - notice how the smaller wave in the foreground rhymes with the form of the mountain on the horizon. Carrie Marill, Yuko Shimizu (although a slightly hairier echo of The Great Wave's curl) and Kozyndan (with a bunny-spitting remake), have created a unique set of variations inspired by one of Japan's most famous landscape artists.

Yuko Shimizu, illustration for a story about natural disasters, 2005

Kozyndan, Uprisings, 2003

Click on the image above for a detailed view of oceanic rabbits!

Katsushika Hokusai, The Great Wave of Kanagawa, 1832

Two Deers

Penny Siopis, Slings and Arrows, 2007

Penny Siopis, a South African artist, has made a very direct nod to Frida Kahlo in this expressionistic rendition of The Wounded Deer. Both artists have had a weighted focus on gender issues in their worldview. 

Frida Kahlo, The Wounded Deer, 1946