“Self-Portrait With Cropped Hair,” 1940, oil on canvas. Credit Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY.

This painting by Frida Kahlo appears in the article by Rebecca Kleinman, “Frida Kahlo Was a Painter, a Brand Builder, a Survivor. And So Much More,” NYTimes, 1-31-19. It’s interesting on many levels, not least for its depiction of the locks of shorn hair strewn about. What particularly got my attention was how it incorporates writing and a staff of music in D Major. (I may learn more about the music when I play it on guitar.) The writing, in Spanish, says the following:

Look, if I loved you it was because of the hair; now that you’re hairless I don’t love you any more.

Cruel words.

(c) 2019 JMN.