In Mexico there's a word for it: \o7 Fridamania.\f7

Almost 40 years after artist Frida Kahlo died in relative obscurity, she is hot, hot, hot. For reasons that are as mysterious as her work, the Mexicana with the single swooping eyebrow has become both a cultural icon and a commercial commodity.

Frida's riveting face is not yet as familiar as that of Mona Lisa or even Madonna, the most famous collector of Kahlo's work. But few artists, and certainly no woman artist since Georgia O'Keeffe, have so captured the popular imagination. And because Frida's favorite subject was Frida, not flowers, it is her own image that is being cranked out by the Great Big Cultural Copy Machine.

An Angeleno who is so inclined can devote a whole day to Fridamania.

Frida's face is everywhere. There are Frida posters and postcards, ranging from images of her with artist-husband Diego Rivera to macabre shots of her taken after her death in 1954 at age 47. But there are also Frida comics and coffee mugs, masks and refrigerator magnets.

Start with a visit to the Los Angeles County Art Museum, where seven of her paintings are on exhibit as part of the current "Mexico: Splendors of Thirty Centuries" show. You will, of course, want to wear a jeans jacket hand-painted with a portrait of the artist ($175 to $290, depending upon where you bought it and whether you supplied the jacket). On the way you will probably drive past one of the giant billboards featuring Frida's face that advertise the show throughout the city.

Next, check out the exhibit of photos of the artist at the Jan Baum Gallery in West Los Angeles. Examine her love letters and marriage certificate at the Louis Newman Galleries in Beverly Hills. Pick up Frida earrings or a Mexican-style altar box featuring her picture at Sonrisa on Beverly Boulevard or one of several other local shops that stock \o7 objets de Frida. \f7 Finally, examine your loot over a cup of Frida's Blend ($9.99 a pound) at the new Little Frida Coffee Bar in West Hollywood, a veritable shrine to the charismatic Kahlo.

Frida has long had a following among Latinos, artists (especially women) and feminists. The current craze seems to have started building in the early 1980s. Publisher Harper Collins reports that its biography of Kahlo, written by art historian Hayden Herrera, has sold more than 100,000 copies since it was first published in 1983.