Frida : A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Frida : A Biography of Frida Kahlo
Book Review: Socialism and Art Combine to Create a Better World!
Summary: 5 Stars
Thanks to Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, Leon Troksky was provided with sanctuary in Mexico after leaving Russia. Undoubtedly, he would not have lived as long as he did had he remained in the USSR or gone elsewhere than Mexico. Frida and Diego also provided a safe haven for Fidel Castro Ruz and other Cuban exiles in Mexico and they introduced Ernesto "Che" Guevara to Fidel and they taught Che, Fidel, and the others true socialism which Fidel later adopted successfully for Cuba to set his island nation free for the first time, on January 1st, 1959. Fidel was also introduced to the world of poetry by Frida and she inspired the small band of Cubans. Mexico was the very first nation to recognize the new government in Cuba under the dynamic leadership of Fidel and Mexico has been steadfast in their support, saying they and other Latin American nations wish they were at where Cuba is now. Unfortunately, not enough is spoken about Fidel's sojourn in Mexico with Frida and Diego, but, it is the best thing so far that presents truthful documentation of history from a Latin American perspective. I'd recommend this as reading for community colleges and for high schools. c/s (Companero Heriberto Booker)Book Review: Alegria!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the first biography's I have read in a long time. I became very interested in Frida after I read a book about the life of Tina Modotti which fascinated me. Tina was one of Diego's many mistresses and a friend of Frida's. They were both extraordinary women of an extraordinary era. I am a painter and first painted the beautiful Tina after reading the book of her remarkable life. I am now overwhelmed with the Herrera biography of Frida and have become her disciple. I feel that I know her, I feel her spirit, I certainly felt her pain. I began taking art lessons as a very young child the year that she passed. I pray that some of that incredible spirit of hers came my way. Her pain was unfathomably deep and yet she survived with a love for life, art, and a difficult man. Her ability to love so deeply was beyond reckoning. There will never be another Frida. I wish that I had known her, been one of her compatriots. I do know her through the book, through her art. The book inspired me, challenged me, and made me feel so thankful that people like Frida grace this world.Book Review: Ode to the Braulein
Summary: 4 Stars
A detailed paean to the biggest gay icon since they built that tall, narrow tower at the tip of Provincetown. An excellent narrative marred only by an ironic lack of illustrations. This made it slow going at storytime for my daughter Priscilla, who at four is already a big Kahlo fan (an eerie development that would have been significantly more worrying had it arisen in her twin brother). She claims to be drawn to Kahlo solely by her artwork. However her mother and I suspect an unvoiced sympathy for Kahlo's leftist politics as well - a suspicion that deepened during the recent dock workers' strike on the West Coast, which Priscilla stridently supported.Book Review: Deep but narrow
Summary: 3 Stars
Kahlo is an utterly capitaviting character, and this book delves deep into her turbulent life to capture some of what made her the painter and the woman she was. She lead an incredible life, battled staggering pain and loss, managed a marriage with a furiously self-involved genius while becoming one herself (a genius, that is), and created her own mythology. Frida's story is incredible, and Herrera brings us into contact with her totally unique energy.But still. After pages and pages of direct citations from Kahlo's diary, after pages and pages of psychoanalytical interpretation of her paintings, the book starts to wear out its welcome. The politics of Mexico are not given any where near as much detail as desirable, and as for the rest of the world . . . forget it. WWII isn't even mentioned, and her relationship with the Communist Party is glossed over. For such a political woman as Kahlo, the absence of any analyis of the world she lived in is pretty stunning, and a major weakness of the book, since it makes it ultimately impossible to understand her.
Still, Frida Kahlo was a great painter and an extraordinary woman. To learn both more and less about her than you want, this is the perfect book.
Book Review: Top Kahlo book out there
Summary: 5 Stars
If you are a Frida Kahlo or Diego Rivera fan (as I am) that is... then this book is your bible -- it is a well-organized orchestration of dates, facts, and photographs about the Mexican artist gods. Some of the moments in the book are intimate, while others are possibly exagerations of the artists' famous life.With a movie in the works (Selma Hayek plays Frida - that is after Laura San Giacomo, Madonna and Jennifer Lopez all had the part, and were dropped because Fridomexicans complained about the lack of Mexicanity in the actresses chosen to portrait their newly-found goddess), Kahlo is sure to solidify her position as the top-of-the-art-food-chain Latin American artist of the century (Georgia O'Keefe considered her the best female artist of the 20th century) and make her iconic face even more famous.
Kahlo deserves this position because she painted honestly and brutally. She painted her memorable Jewish-Austrian-Spanish-Mexican face, single eyebrow and slim moustache in stark honesty; she had many lovers of both sexes (when such a course of sex exploits was practically unknown); she grabbed her Mexicanity with a fierce pride and ferocity that would not be in vogue until decades after her death (Kahlo was born in 1907 and died in 1954) and yet during her life she was just the wife of a very famous Mexican muralist and a champagne Communist who partied with the Fords and Rockefellers while marching with the workers down the wide avenues of Mexico City. It is thus ironic that it is Kahlo, whose astonishing life and unique paintings are now the subject of lawsuits between governments and collectors, has taken the limelight from her talented womanizer husband and is rightfully considered one of the best artists of the 20th century, period. This is THE BOOK about her.