Trotsky and Frida with a Pinata
Trotsky and Frida with a Pinata
Oil on Panel
12"x12"
2015

Some time ago I read a biography of Leon Trotsky and was affected by his role in the Russian Revolution. Ultimately the Bolsheviks come to be controlled by the larger psychopath, Stalin, and Trotsky was exiled. He eventually arrived in Mexico where he and Frida Kahlo had a short affair. Frida, a lifelong Communist, was very unrealistic about the power of Communism and even thought it could free people of physical pain. Her body was a great source of pain for her throughout her life. Frida is freed of her painful body in this image, only the heart remains. The pinata has the head of the Statue of Liberty mounted on the crepe-papered body of the Venus of Willendorf, a composite image of their mutual enemy, Capitalism.