Frida Kahlo: 1907-1954: Pain and Passion by Andrea Kettenmann

A wonderful introduction to Kahlo (a review of the English translation)

Originally published in 1999.

If you saw the Selma Hayek movie on the life of Frida Kahlo and want to know a bit more, this book is a wonderful introduction to her professional life. In fact, the movie and this book complement one another quite nicely, since the movie tended to focus on her personal life.

Andrea Kettenmann's book follows the life of Kahlo and does a great job of explaining the symbolism of Kahlo's work as it pertained to her personal life, her health setbacks and her political beliefs. In my opinion, the intensely personal nature of her work is what makes her such a compelling artist. She was especially good at depicting her pain, both psychic and physical. This book goes a long way to explaining many of her works.

Frida Kahlo with
Diego Rivera in 1932

There are 93 illustrations in this book and most of them are of her paintings. Also includes a couple of photographs of Diego Rivera's works that included images of Kahlo.

This is a small book (less than 100 pages), but it packs a whole lot of punch and is very effective as an introduction to this fascinating artist.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Frida Kahlo: 1907-1954: Pain and Passion.

Reviewed on November 9, 2007.