Fazle Kinkhabwala, Chair of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, shares one of his favourite LGBT+ political artists:
LGBT+ History month has been celebrated in the UK since 2005. For those of us growing up in the 1980s and 90s, you may remember Section 28, a law which stopped councils and schools "promoting the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship." LGBT+ History Month was an attempt to put right the mistakes of that time, by making education more inclusive and sharing the wonderful history of people under the rainbow.
Each year, LGBT+ History month takes its theme from one of the subjects on the school curriculum, and looks to shine a light on LGBT+ people who may have been hidden in history. This year the theme is art or more specifically “Politics in Art – the Arc is Long”.
I wanted to share one of my favourite LGBT+ political artists, the iconic Frida Kahlo.
Frida was a member of the Mexican Communist Party and a friend and lover of Leon Trotsky. In the interests of civil service political neutrality I will also remind people that Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May attracted attention for wearing a striking Frida Kahlo bracelet at the party conference in 2017.
Frida Kahlo was married to the artist Diego Rivera, but theirs was an open marriage and both parties had several lovers. Frida was famously bisexual, and her female lovers included singer and anti-racism activist Josephine Baker, and fellow artist Georgia O’Keefe. Frida had polio in her childhood, and then sustained disabling injuries in a bus accident when she was 18, so her paintings often explore themes of pain and disability. She also often explored gender, sometimes covering herself with flowers but other times painting herself in men’s clothes or exaggerating her lip and eyebrow hair into a trademark unibrow to enhance the masculine aspect of her personality – one really could say “the arc is long” with Frida!
If you are interested in learning more about her life and work, I can recommend the 2002 film Frida starring Salma Hayek as the artist. It was through this film that I became aware of her.
