Among the women artists who have transcended the history of art, none had such a meteoric rise as Frida Kahlo. She was a prominent figure in Mexican art, as well as a pioneer of political discourse on sexuality and feminism. This monograph combines her paintings with photographs and pages from her diary.

Suffering and passion

The paintings of Mexico's most famous painter

Among the women artists who have transcended the history of art, none has had such a meteoric rise as the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (1907-1954). Generations have admired her unmistakable face, depicted in more than fifty extraordinary self-portraits; these, along with hundreds of photographs taken by such masters as Manuel and Lola Álvarez Bravo, Nickolas Mura and Martin Munkácsi, made Frida Kahlo an iconic image of 20th century art.
After suffering an accident in her early youth, Frida decided to become a painter. Her marriage in 1929 to Diego Rivera placed her at the forefront of the artistic scene of the cultural renaissance in Mexico and also in the United States. The poet André Breton praised her work, brought her into the ranks of international surrealism and exhibited her work in Paris in 1939, where Picasso, Kandinsky and Duchamp were able to admire her.
This volume allows readers to view Frida Kahlo's paintings as never before, accompanied by famous photographs. It presents works from hard-to-access private collections and reproduces paintings that have been lost or unexhibited for more than 80 years. The volume is the most extensive study of Frida Kahlo's paintings ever published.
The reader will find in this book a fascinating account of Frida Kahlo's artistic career. We gain access to Frida's intimate affections and passions through a selection of drawings, pages from her personal diary and an extensive biography illustrated with photos of Frida, Diego and the Casa Azul, the home and centre of the painter's universe.

About the editor and author

Luis-Martín Lozano is an art historian. His research focuses on analysing the creative processes of artists within the parameters of modernity in Mexico and Latin America. He was awarded a Fulbright scholarship and has conducted extensive research on the work of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera and is the author of numerous publications on both artists. Lozano was director of the Museo de Arte Moderno de México and has collaborated as a guest curator with different art institutions in the United States, Europe, Asia, Latin America and, above all, in Mexico.

Publisher: Taschen