Artistic icon: the best books about Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter, best known for creating self-portraits that reflect her personal experiences, projecting the victories and difficulties she went through throughout her unconventional existence. Kahlo is also considered an icon of popular culture, both in Mexico and in other parts of Latin America, and has influenced the work of modern authors.
The painter's life was marked by a serious bus accident that occurred during her youth. This event caused her to remain bedridden for long periods of time, and she underwent thirty-two surgical operations. Following his chaotic journey through the world, many authors have written about his life and work. These are the best books about Frida Kahlo.
Brief biography of Frida Kahlo
First years
Magdalena Frida Carmen Kahlo and Calderón was born on July 6, 1907 in Coyoacán, Mexico City. She was the third daughter of the marriage between the photographer Guillermo Kahlo and Matilde Calderón.. His relationship with his mother used to be cold and distant, while with his father he shared a very special fraternal bond, especially because they both supported each other in their respective illnesses.
In 1922, he entered the National Preparatory School in Mexico City with the aim of studying medicine. There, he met a group of young people with whom he joined. Together, they were known as Las Cachuchas, and they dedicated themselves to doing "politics" within the institution, being supporters of movements whose ideas fit with anarchism and the romantic revolution.
Accident and the beginning of his artistic career
On September 17, 1925, Frida was returning from school with Alejandro Gómez Arias, her boyfriend at the time. At the most unexpected moment, the bus she was on was hit by a tram.The transport was crushed against a wall, completely destroyed. Meanwhile, Kahlo's spine was fractured in three places, but this was not the only thing she suffered.
The future painter suffered fractures to her ribs, collarbones, pelvic area and right leg. After this terrible accident, the medicine of her time tortured her with multiple operations, plaster corsets and stretching sessions. Before all this happened, Kahlo had been working as an apprentice in the engraving and printing workshop of Fernando Fernández Domínguez, a friend of his father.
This knowledge served her well during her periods of prostration, when she had to remain as still as possible to help her bones heal. It was then that He began to develop a very special taste for painting. —an activity that had previously interested him little. In 1926 he painted his first oil painting, and continued to paint until his death in 1954.
The best books about Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo's diary (2001), by Sarah M. Lowe
This book is a detailed analysis of Frida Kahlo's personal diary, an intimate manuscript that the painter wrote between 1944 and 1954. Through its pages, filled with thoughts, poems, sketches and explosions of color, Kahlo reveals her inner world.
Art historian Sarah M. Lowe delves into the symbolism and meaning of these writings and drawings, contextualizing them within the author's life and work. She examines how the diary reflects Frida's physical and emotional pain, her relationship with Diego Rivera, her political identity, and her creative process.
Kahlo: 1907-1954 (2015), by Gerry Souter
In this illustrated biography, Gerry Souter explores the life and work of Frida Kahlo, portraying her as one of the most emblematic artists of the 20th centuryThe author creates an in-depth examination of her paintings and a detailed narrative of her career, immersing the reader in the universe of a woman who transformed her suffering into curious paintings that became of great commercial interest.
From her childhood marred by polio to the devastating accident that defined her destiny, Souter examines how Kahlo's personal experiences were reflected in her works, charged with symbolism, pain and passion. addresses her problematic relationship with Diego Rivera, his political activism and his fight for identity in a changing Mexico.
Frida Kahlo: a biography (2016), by Maria Hesse
This is another illustrated biography, where the author immerses the reader in the life of Frida Kahlo through a combination of narrative and evocative illustrations. The book covers the key moments of the Mexican painter's life: Her childhood was marked by illness, an accident, her unhealthy relationship with Diego Rivera, and her struggle to find her own voice in a male-dominated world.
More than a conventional biography, Frida Kahlo: a biography It is a tribute by the author to what she considers to be the strength and sensitivity of a woman who turned pain into art. Hesse uses a close and emotional style, and invites us to explore Kahlo's symbolic universe., highlighting what she assumes as her legacy, an "icon of struggle, creativity and female identity."
Kahlo (2015), by Andrea Kettenmann
As in the previous books, this one provides an analysis of the life and work of Frida Kahlo, recounting to what extent her personal tragedies always influenced what she extrapolated onto her canvases. The work traces the painter's career, as almost always, from her early years to her troubled love relationship and the way in which all these factors turned her into a recognizable figure.
With a careful selection of images of his works and photographs of his life, Kettenmann unravels the symbolism behind Kahlo's self-portraits, its use of color, the representation of pain and its connection with surrealism and Mexican identity.
Frida Kahlo: The Gisèle Freund Photographs (2015), by Gérard de Cortanze
This book is a unique visual testimony of Frida Kahlo's final years, captured through the lens of renowned photographer Gisèle Freund. With a foreword by Gérard de Cortanze, The work brings together a collection of intimate images that portray Kahlo in her home, the Blue House, with Diego Rivera, friends and his creative universe.
Beyond their aesthetic value, these photographs provide a close and personal look at the painter's daily life, showing her physical fragility, her emotionality and her unwavering passion for art and Mexican identity. Accompanied by texts that contextualize her story, These images reveal a real and sincere Frida, far from the myth that has surrounded it.
