4.51

5

Oct 31, 2019

I've always been sceptical about reading books featuring art/paintings, as with some you don't get much in the way of explanatory text to accompany the works of art. This book suffers no such problem, thankfully, and all in all, I found it simply amazing. This is about as comprehensive a book will will ever see on the work of Frida Kahlo. It was so detailed, with so many interesting facts about Kahlo that I previously didn't know. Herrera does a great job of analysing her work deeply, and goes I've always been sceptical about reading books featuring art/paintings, as with some you don't get much in the way of explanatory text to accompany the works of art. This book suffers no such problem, thankfully, and all in all, I found it simply amazing. This is about as comprehensive a book will will ever see on the work of Frida Kahlo. It was so detailed, with so many interesting facts about Kahlo that I previously didn't know. Herrera does a great job of analysing her work deeply, and goes through some the most important personal moments of her life, so the book doubles up as a bio as well. Kahlo expressed all her feelings and emotions through art, and this book is crammed full of many beautiful illustrations, including her more famous and brightly coloured self portraits, to smaller sketches and drawings.
No hesitation at all in scoring this a five. ...more

5

Aug 07, 2019

Painfully raw and beautiful. To capture the depth of of one’s authentic feeling and color vivid the emotions upon canvas is fearlessness at it’s finest...

5

Mar 26, 2011

Fascinating look at the preeminent artist of Mexico. At first glance her work appears ugly. An in depth look and analysis reveals an astounding work. Shocking and dramatic. No one ever put a woman's pain and suffering to canvas like Frida.

4

Jul 15, 2019

I read this text for a post-graduate course, which is part of an Art History certification program. I was familiar with the major works she created, and the major events in her life, but this text delves deep into the details Frida Kahlo's life. It includes tons of photographs of Frida from her childhood through out her final days, and so many of her paintings. I had no idea she created as many works as she did.

I think what I liked most about this text is how thoroughly the author interprets I read this text for a post-graduate course, which is part of an Art History certification program. I was familiar with the major works she created, and the major events in her life, but this text delves deep into the details Frida Kahlo's life. It includes tons of photographs of Frida from her childhood through out her final days, and so many of her paintings. I had no idea she created as many works as she did.

I think what I liked most about this text is how thoroughly the author interprets her paintings. Tons of her works are featured, and many are highlighted and analyzed, both her most famous and some not-so-famous works. The author speaks in detail about what was going on in Frida's life when she created each piece, and speaks of the specific symbolism of each work, from the arrangement of objects, to the colors used, to the objects themselves.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone remotely interested in learning more about Frida Kahlo's life. It's an easy, but informative read. I didn't find it to be repetitive or boring, in fact it's sparked a drive in me to find out even more about her life and works. ...more

5

Oct 25, 2016

I've been reading this book a few pages at a time over the past couple of months, which proved an ideal way to enjoy Herrera's insightful journey through Kahlo's extraordinary art and how central it was to her very existence.

I've been a huge fan of Kahlo since watching the movie Frida for the first time in about 2003, and seeing a superb exhibition of her work at the Tate Modern a couple of years later. The film, based on Herrera's biography published in 1983, brought Kahlo to the world stage, I've been reading this book a few pages at a time over the past couple of months, which proved an ideal way to enjoy Herrera's insightful journey through Kahlo's extraordinary art and how central it was to her very existence.

I've been a huge fan of Kahlo since watching the movie Frida for the first time in about 2003, and seeing a superb exhibition of her work at the Tate Modern a couple of years later. The film, based on Herrera's biography published in 1983, brought Kahlo to the world stage, and the Tate show -- the first major exhibition of her art for twenty years or more -- cemented her reputation and prompted a reissue of Frida Kahlo: The Paintings.

There is no greater expert on Kahlo than Herrera, and she does a wonderful job here of chronologically walking the reader through the life, loves, influences, politics and tragic moments of Kahlo's eventful life to provide a context and understanding of her paintings, well over a hundred of which are reproduced in the book.

Everything about Frida Kahlo: The Paintings is splendid. The writing is focussed and penetrating, the reproduction quality is excellent, the layout is highly readable, and the notes, bibliography and index very convenient for the reader. I wish all such books could be as pleasurable and illuminating to read as this tribute to an artist whose life and work were full of originality and magnetism. ...more

4

Sep 25, 2011

Beautiful reproductions of Kahlo's work here - with a spare but essential back story of her life. There are better biographies, but as an essential background to the works presented, this volume does very well.

3

Jul 11, 2009

Read it many years ago but I remember deeply enjoying it. It inspired me to go on a literary Frida bio rampage. I would read it again.

4

Apr 26, 2016

I read this in tandem with Frida: A Biography as it has better and more reproductions and photographs. Reading it alone would still provide a good overview of Frida's life and art.

5

Nov 05, 2007

A beautiful book given to me by my friend Emily. What a great gift, and what a great book to own.

5

Jul 10, 2014

I am totally fascinated by this artist and loved seeing her artwork and reading the commentary by the author.

5

Sep 10, 2010

Absolutely love her paintings. Was lucky enough to see the Kahlo exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art a few years ago. Amazing experience.

5

Aug 11, 2013

Kahlo's paintings are amazing and very moving. Worth looking over and, the more you know about her, the better you will understand the great spirit that it took to create these fantastic images. Her work is like no other.

4

Jan 21, 2008

This is no hardcover, unfortunately, but a comprehensive collection of many of Frida's paintings. After watching the movie again the other day, I had to get a book that told me more about this strong character.

4

Apr 29, 2011

Part coffee table book, part art history text, and part biography, this was an in depth look at Frida's paintings. I love Herrera's detailed descriptions of her work situated right next to a painting reproduction. It was fun to see photos of places where we'd been--I absolutely adore the blue house where Frida had her studio.

4

Mar 18, 2012

Frida is a hero to women in Mexico and anyone who has ever had to suffer for any reason. In her paintings and in her life she shows so much strength and endurance and is a beacon of hope for anyone. This book is a good way to get to know the events in her life that led to the amazing things she portrayed in her portraits.

5

Sep 16, 2008

Each time I look at this book, year after year, I feel like I did that first day. I recognize her indomitable spirit—this incredible will, not only to survive but also to look with an unflinching eye. Her art redeems suffering as an ecstatic experience.

And we mentally shake hands. As I turn the pages, I see her leaping over the grave where she refuses to rest.

2

Jun 23, 2008

This was a good compilation of Kahlo's work, but if you've read Herrera's bio, there's no real need to actually read this, too. It only gives a very brief overview of Kahlo's life, and all of the information, including analysis of the paintings, can be found in the bio, plus a lot more. I read the original edition of the bio, so I'm not sure if newer versions have more/better illustrations, but this is great to have by your side to see bigger and more colored versions of her work as you read This was a good compilation of Kahlo's work, but if you've read Herrera's bio, there's no real need to actually read this, too. It only gives a very brief overview of Kahlo's life, and all of the information, including analysis of the paintings, can be found in the bio, plus a lot more. I read the original edition of the bio, so I'm not sure if newer versions have more/better illustrations, but this is great to have by your side to see bigger and more colored versions of her work as you read about them. ...more

5

Oct 24, 2010

I've always been a fan of Kahlo's paintings, but never knew a whole lot about her beyond that film that was out a few years ago. The book features a whole mess of paintings and photographs, accompanied by an entirely readable biography. The best parts of the biography are the suggestions for what certain paintings mean and how the symbols Kahlo frequently used were relevant to her life at the time. It's a good book for a decent coverage of Kahlo's life and some very nice reproductions of her I've always been a fan of Kahlo's paintings, but never knew a whole lot about her beyond that film that was out a few years ago. The book features a whole mess of paintings and photographs, accompanied by an entirely readable biography. The best parts of the biography are the suggestions for what certain paintings mean and how the symbols Kahlo frequently used were relevant to her life at the time. It's a good book for a decent coverage of Kahlo's life and some very nice reproductions of her work. ...more

0

Mar 15, 2012

Whether or not you saw FRIDA, Julie Taymor’s recent biopic about the late Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, reading about the artist’s color-saturated world can provide a spectacular antidote to the gray weeks of winter. The best introduction remains Hayden Herrera’s learned, thoroughly enjoyable biography Frida, which served as the basis for the film. Herrera’s study is particularly valuable in its extensive, down-to-earth commentary on Kahlo’s paintings. To many new viewers, her self-portraits seem Whether or not you saw FRIDA, Julie Taymor’s recent biopic about the late Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, reading about the artist’s color-saturated world can provide a spectacular antidote to the gray weeks of winter. The best introduction remains Hayden Herrera’s learned, thoroughly enjoyable biography Frida, which served as the basis for the film. Herrera’s study is particularly valuable in its extensive, down-to-earth commentary on Kahlo’s paintings. To many new viewers, her self-portraits seem determinedly macabre, even gruesome. But their visual motifs—miscarried fetuses, human hearts, skeletons, demonic monkeys—aren’t gratuitous. Instead, they fit squarely within the Mexican artistic tradition, ranging from its beginnings in pre-Columbian fertility statuary to its post-conquest retablos, iconographic offerings made to Christ and various saints after salvation from physical catastrophe.

Kahlo often said that she suffered two calamitous accidents during her life. The first, a collision with a bus during her teens, produced, among other injuries, a triple fracture of the pelvis, compound breaks in her spinal column and a deeply slashing puncture wound caused by a steel handrail. The second, she often declared with the same black humor that helped her survive a lifetime of physical torments, was her tempestuous, often agonized relationship with her husband, the brilliant muralist and compulsively philandering Diego Rivera, whose appetites eventually led to an affair with Kahlo’s sister Cristina. Yet Kahlo’s adoration of Rivera was unwavering; and, in turn, she had no greater artistic teacher and champion. It was Rivera who encouraged Kahlo to begin painting seriously again after she suffered a miscarriage, teaching her to look to pre-Columbian and votive art for inspiration.

Herrera’s biography is complemented by a reissue of her own stellar critical study, KAHLO: THE PAINTINGS. as well as by a glossy companion volume to the film, which contains her commentary, lavish pictorials, and the screenplay of the Taymor movie. Actor Edward Norton, who plays Nelson Rockefeller in the film, is given no official credit for the exquisitely constructed and highly literate screenplay, but he is deservedly thanked by the project’s major players, Taymor, Herrera and Salma Hayek.

To bring Kahlo’s story to the screen, Hayek, the film’s star, had to overcome considerable resistance from Hollywood studios, which were reluctant to green-light a project about a Hispanic female artist. After reading the actress’s introduction to the Newmarket Press volume, it’s more than a little unsettling to realize how many years it took, despite Hayek’s ever-growing box-office power and the passionate support of actors like Norton, Alfred Molina and Ashley Judd. It should be obvious to anyone who in recent years has visited eBay that interest in Kahlo herself has grown exponentially. Furthermore, as all of the books under discussion here prove, the Kahlo-Rivera circle—which included Leon Trotsky, Edward Weston, Tina Modotti and Andre Breton—scintillated with as much innate drama, mordant glamour, sexuality and historical/political fireworks as anything our most novelistic and literate American filmmakers have been able to devise since Scorsese and Coppola in their heyday.




(originally published in the NASHVILLE SCENE / Village Voice Media) ...more

5

Jul 07, 2019

A moving biography that unfolds the life and work of Friday Kahlo by deeply examining her art.

5

Jun 24, 2019

This was the best of the Frida Khalo books I have read. I felt like I got an in-depth insight into who she was as well as more photos with this book than with others.

4

Jun 14, 2018

I'm not sure why, but I never tire of learning about Frida Kahlo.

5

Sep 12, 2018

Indispensable guide to Frida Kahlo's biography and art. While I think Herrera misjudges Kahlo's intentions, especially around gender performance and pregnancy, his research is enlightening and the book is a fascinating read from cover to cover.

4

Aug 10, 2019

I saw the movie but never really looked at her paintings. Was in a library, read this book in one sitting. Much better understanding of her life, the context in which she painted, and her amazing artwork. Really out there, especially for the times. I'm not an artist, but I really appreciated this book.

5

Feb 17, 2019

Beautiful and approachable yet rigorous writing on the life and art of Frida Kahlo. The interpretations of her art are insightful and exciting. I purchased this text at the Brooklyn Museum’s “Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving” exhibit (2019) and I’m grateful I did because Kahlo’s most radical works are on view in this book. I’m inspired to read more biographies on Kahlo now; thank you Herrera for the scholarship on this brilliant woman.