DECADES AFTER HER DEATH, KAHLO'S INTENSITY STILL BURNS.

Byline: Heather Wood Staff Writer

It is said that when Frida Kahlo was cremated on July 13, 1954, the famed Mexican artist made her goodbye memorable.

As the body was being moved into the incinerator, a blast of heat came from the fire, blowing her body into a sitting position. Kahlo's hair caught on fire and created a halo effect before she disappeared into the flames and the incinerator door closed.

During her 47 years, Kahlo danced the line between loving life and longing for death. Born into a loving family in Coyoacan, Mexico, she excelled in school and dreamed of becoming a doctor before a near-fatal bus crash in 1925 left her body broken.

While immobilized from the accident she began to paint, using herself as the subject. A self-fascination continued even when Kahlo was able to walk again after numerous painful operations.

While the accident left her unable to bear children, it also spurred a lust for life, which included a tempestuous marriage to famed artist Diego Rivera, bisexual relationships and a liaison with exiled socialist Leon Trotsky.

A portrait of an artist's life

Her art offers a visual diary of her life, depicting her joys (homeland, friends, family and husband) and sorrows (continuing pain from her surgeries, miscarriages, drug-induced hallucinations and heartbreak).

``Her art isn't necessarily appealing. It's not there to make you feel good about yourself,'' says Julie Taymor, who directed the Miramax film ``Frida,'' which opens Friday. ``But it draws you in because of that wicked gaze that stares out at you. (Her paintings are) beguiling and grotesque, but they're also incredibly evocative.''

One self-portrait shows an intense Kahlo - joined eyebrows, faint mustache, jet black hair, blood-red lips and a piercing stare.

``It's that look that commands you to pay attention to her, to have some kind of empathy for what's happening to her,'' says Hayden Herrera, whose 1983 ``Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo'' served as the basis for the film and helped revive interest in the artist. ``If she added anything to art history it is the ability to be that personal. I don't think anyone had done anything quite like that before.''

After her accident, Kahlo found a mentor, a lover and a soul mate in Rivera (played by Alfred Molina in the film). On the surface, however, the two couldn't be more different. Rivera was older (by 20 years), larger (in both status and girth) and incredibly egocentric. Kahlo was petite and remained largely unnoticed for most of her career. He painted grand-scale murals that examined global political issues. She painted self-portraits that were often in a very small format.

But the two shared a passion for each other and for art.

``They really made quite a couple,'' says Herrera. ``I call her the charming amateur. She never took herself too seriously as a painter, but (Rivera) continuously regarded her work as superior.''

The art of controversy

Detailed paintings of miscarriages, murders and lesbian eroticism certainly weren't prominent in the 1930s and '40s, when Kahlo rose to relative fame in the art world. Surrealist poet and essayist Andre Brenton famously called Kahlo's art ``a ribbon around a bomb.''

``She is very revealing of what's happening in her life,'' says Herrera. ``She gets away with painting herself having a miscarriage and yet it's not revolting, though it certainly could be. I think it has something to do with her reserve and all the things she doesn't tell you.''

Gregorio Luke, director of the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach and a Kahlo scholar, says Kahlo often uses her art to exorcise her problems, her demons.

``When she has her miscarriages, she paints them. When she has her problems with Diego Rivera, she paints them. In other words, painting is a way of living for her.''

Kahlo once explained her work this way: ``I paint my own reality. The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head.''

Despite the pain in her life, Kahlo could find humor in the strangest places.

``One of my favorite (paintings) is 'A Few Small Nips,' '' says Salma Hayek, who portrays the artist in the film. ``It definitely reflects her dark sense of humor.''

The painting depicts a man holding a knife, standing over a naked woman sprawled on a bed, bleeding from dozens of stab wounds. The work was inspired by a news account Kahlo read of a domestic argument turned deadly. When questioned about the murder, the assailant replied, ``It was just a few small nips.''

``She's saying men do horrible things, and they don't even acknowledge what they've done,'' says Hayek. Statements like that may explain why Kahlo has become something of a feminist heroine years after her death.

Today, some 200 of Kahlo's works hang in museums from Munich to Mexico. One painting is in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and there is an oil of Kahlo there by Rivera.

``While she did gain recognition during her lifetime, the position that she now has was very much accomplished after her death,'' says the Museum of Latin American Art's Luke. ``During her life, Frida Kahlo did not have the place that she is given now, by no means. She was well-regarded. Diego Rivera respected her very much. But she did not have this kind of iconic status that she has now.''

Perhaps Kahlo would find all the current fuss, which has turned her into something of an icon, simply amusing. After all, her last diary entry read, ``I hope the leaving is joyful and I hope never to return.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) ``SELF PORTRAIT WITH MONKEY''

(2 -- color) ``SELF PORTRAIT BETWEEN THE BORDERLINE OF MEXICO AND THE UNITED STATES''