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Frida Kahlo: Her Life and Art Revisited

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FRIDA KAHLO, MYSTERIOUS PAINTER. By FrazierNancy. The Library of Famous Women. (Woodbridge, Conn.: Blackbirch, 1992. Pp. 64. $14.95 cloth.)
FRIDA KAHLO, MEXICAN PAINTER. By GarzaHedda. Hispanics of Achievement Series. (New York: Chelsea House, 1994. Pp. 125. $18.95 cloth, $7.95 paper.)
THE ARTS: FRIDA KAHLO. By JonesJane Anderson. (Vero Beach, Fla.: Rourke, 1993. Pp. 112. $19.95 cloth, $14.95 paper.)

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Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2022

Holly Barnet-Sánchez
Holly Barnet-Sánchez*
Affiliation:
University of New Mexico
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Abstract

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Type
Review Essays
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , 1997 , pp. 243 - 257
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 by the University of Texas Press

References

Notes

1. Marisela Norte, “976 LOCA,” in Recent Chicano Poetry/Neueste Chicano-Lyrik, edited by Heiner Bus and Ana Castillo (Bamberg, Germany: Universitätsbibliothek Bamberg, 1974), 16–17. This sharp but often humorous poem exemplifies how Frida is incorporated into an ironic exploration of culture and identity.

2. Gloria Orenstein, “Frida Kahlo: Painting for Miracles,” Feminist Art Journal 2, no. 3 (Fall 1973):7–9.

3. These figures are taken from Cecilia Puerto's bibliography under review here. See also Rupert García, Frida Kahlo: A Bibliography (Berkeley: Chicano Studies Library Publications Unit, University of California, 1983). Although published thirteen years ago, García's bibliography remains a major resource, with 181 entries citing virtually every article (in Spanish and English) in which Kahlo was even mentioned, from those written during her life until 1983.

4. Jones provides the following information on these films and videos (p. 108): Karen Crommie and David Crommie, The Life and Death of Frida Kahlo as Told to David and Karen Crommie, documentary film, 1976; Paul Leduc, Frida, film available on video, 1984; Louise Lo, Frida Kahlo: Portrait of an Artist, documentary film, made for the Public Broadcasting Service by KQED in San Francisco, 1988; Ken Mandel, Jeff Jurst, and Cora Cardona, Frida Kahlo: A Ribbon around a Bomb, film, 1992; and RM Arts, Hershon Guerra, and WDR, Frida Kahlo: Portrait of an Artist, video, 1983.

5. See Hayden Herrera, “Why Frida Kahlo Speaks to the 90's,” The New York Times, 28 Oct. 1990, art section, pp. 1, 41. The actual quote is a highlighted statement provided by the editor of the art section.

6. The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait, introduction by Carlos Fuentes, essay by Sarah M. Lowe (New York: Harry N. Abrams; and Mexico City: La Vaca Independiente, 1995).

7. Amy Fine Collins, “Diary of a Mad Artist,” Vanity Fair, Sept. 1995, pp. 176–88, 227–30. Collins quotes liberally from a manuscript by Dr. Saloman Grimberg, child psychiatrist and longtime Kahlo scholar and curator. From his access to clinical interviews and other documents as well as his exhaustive examination of Frida's biography and paintings, Grimberg prepared a psychiatric profile of Kahlo that is devastating. The tone of the article is also indicated by the highlighted blurb at the beginning of the article: “Forty years after her death, Frida Kahlo has become a politically correct heroine for every wounded minority. … Amy Fine Collins delves into the artist's tortured mind” (p. 176). The article clearly attempts to deflate the Kahlo phenomenon and cast aspersions on those who find her persona and her work significant. Much of what Collins writes has merit but is rendered suspect by the smirking tone. Such an effort sidesteps the potent impact of Kahlo's artwork as a legitimate object of study on a multitude of levels that should never be reduced to simply an exegesis of her illnesses or her marginality. Not even Grimberg goes that far in his many articles.

8. Hayden Herrera, “Why Frida Kahlo Speaks to the 90's,” New York Times; Oriana Baddeley, “‘Her Dress Hangs Here’: Defrocking the Kahlo Cult,” The Oxford Art Journal 14, no. 1 (1991):10-17; Janice Bergman-Carton, “Strike a Pose: The Framing of Madonna and Frida Kahlo,” Texas Studies in Literature and Language 35, no. 4 (Winter 1993):440-52; and Judd Tully, “The Kahlo Cult,” Art News 93, no. 4 (Apr. 1994):126–33. See also the catalogue entitled Pasión por Frida, based on an exhibition organized by the Museo Estudio Diego Rivera in Mexico City in 1991–1992 (Mexico City: Museo Estudio Diego Rivera, 1991).

9. Guillermo Kahlo was commissioned by the Porfirio Díaz government to photograph major colonial architectural monuments for the 1910 centennial of independence from Spain.

10. The Galería de la Raza in San Francisco, an influential Chicano-Latino art space begun by a number of Bay Area artists in the late 1960s, organized an homenaje to Frida Kahlo for its 1978 exhibition commemorating the Day of the Dead, curated by artist Carmen Lomas Garza. A national call for artists to create works in homage to Frida brought a phenomenal response. The exhibition also included photographs of Kahlo lent by Emmy Lou Packard and an altar dedicated to Frida's memory. Chicano artists and writers like Amalia Mesa Bains and Rupert García have been exploring the significance of Frida's life and art for the Chicano community. Art historian Ramón Favela wrote about the Chicano contribution to understanding Frida in “La imagen de Frida Kahlo en la plástica chicana,” in Pasión por Frida, 136–53.

11. Hayden Herrera, Frida Kahlo: The Paintings (New York: Harper, 1991).

12. Nancy Dcffebach (formerly Nancy Breslow) has been much more successful in determining the significance and uses of pre-Columbian imagery in the work of Frida Kahlo. She includes the use of monkeys within that category. Deffebach examined artifacts and glyphs, monkeys and mythology, and the use of the sun and moon. She has also provided an exhaustive study of what Kahlo could have known about pre-Columbian art and civilization and the ways in which this knowledge was carefully selected and transformed in her paintings. See Nancy Breslow, “Frida Kahlo: A Cry of Joy and Pain,” Americas 32, no. 3 (Mar. 1980):33-39; and Nancy Deffebach, “Pre-Columbian Symbolism in the Art of Frida Kahlo,” M.A. thesis, University of Texas at Austin, 1991.

13. See “Portrait of Diego,” translated by Nancy Breslow and Amy Weiss Narea, Calyx: A Journal of Art and Literature by Women, no. 5 (Oct. 1980):80-89, 92–108 (published in Corvallis, Oregon).

14. The 1995 publication of The Diary of Frida Kahlo, along with an introduction by Carlos Fuentes and an essay by Sarah Lowe, provides the latest document for Frida students and scholars to examine. Some other recent publications were designed to take advantage of the continuing passion for Frida, such as Frida Kahlo: The Camera Seduced, a memoir by Elena Poniatowska and an essay by Carla Stellweg (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1992); and Guadalupe Rivera and Marie-Pierre Colle, Frida's Fiestas: Recipes and Reminiscences of Life with Frida Kahlo (New York: Clarkson Potter, 1994). These works nonetheless provide enjoyable reading and viewing experiences as well as insights into different aspects of the artist's persona.