Artbooks about Frida Kahlo

Artbooks Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo is one of the most beloved artists on our planet. Many museums worldwide, small and large, have already made a solo exhibition to show their visitors her remarkable imagination. And all well known art book publishers have made their own story about the life and work by Kahlo. That's not so difficult, she lived an extraordinary life, with some ups and many downs. Her life could just have been conceived by a novelist with a lot of imagination. Like Rembrandt, Vincent van Gogh and Edvard Munch had done before her, this artist has made an exceptional number of breathtaking Self-Portraits. She also has written a lot about her thoughts, and experiences in the final phase of her life. You can read her fascinating personal story in the artbook The Diary of Frida Kahlo. An Intimate Self-Portrait, published by Abrams.

An introduction to Frida Kahlo

by Art Historian Sander Kletter

Photo of Frida Kahlo on the cover of the book Frida Kahlo Making her self up, a publication of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, which showcases both her paintings and her eccentric clothing style.

Frida Kahlo, Self-portrait with thorn collar, 1940,
oil on canvas, 63,5 x 49,5 cm,
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center Art Collection,
The University of Texas, Austin, Texas

The subject matter of the paintings of Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) is intertwined with her own, most of the time harrowing, life story. Her particularly personal self-portraits, in which she explores her own identity, are world-famous. She created about 55 of such portraits. In total she painted more then 140 paintings.

Kahlo grew up in Mexico. The Mexican Revolution, which took place there from 1910, was of great significance for Mexico's history, but also for Kahlo's identity formation. After years of dictatorship by President Porfirio Díaz (1830-1915), who was president of Mexico from 1876 to 1880 and from 1884 to 1911, the revolution erupted with a major uprising. This is the beginning of a period of violence and bloodshed that will continue for another decade. Kahlo's identification with the revolution is evidenced by the fact that she gave the year of birth as the year of the outbreak of the revolution, even though, according to her birth certificate, she came into the world three years earlier.

At the age of six, she develops infantile paralysis, which permanently disfigures her leg and foot. This is the reason she starts wearing mainly trousers and long skirts. However, hiding her disability is not entirely possible: in her youth, she is called ‘Frida Hinkebeen’ to her chagrin. Her physical condition may explain why she initially wanted to become a doctor. But meanwhile, she paints some portraits of school friends during her first year of study after high school. And she takes drawing lessons from a friend of her father's, who is very impressed by her artistic gift. It did not yet occur to her to pursue an artistic career. However, this changes due to an influential event at the young age of eighteen, which will affect the rest of her life.

World-famous self-portraits

Nearly fatal bus accident & Diego Rivera

On 17 September 1925, she was seriously injured in a collision between a bus and a tram, in which several people died. Kahlo herself also finds herself on the verge of death, but she miraculously manages to survive the accident. Her recovery, however, takes almost two years, partly because the fracture in her spine is only diagnosed after a year. She spends this period mainly in bed. She cannot do much, but what she can do is paint. This is where she begins her, now world-famous, series of self-portraits.

When Kahlo resumes her social life after her illness, she comes into contact with the in Mexico popular painter Diego Rivera (1886-1957) through her friends. He was known for his huge politically tinged murals, inspired by Marxism, the Mexican Revolution and the Russian Revolution, which reflected the life of the working class and that of the indigenous Mexican population. Kahlo felt great admiration for this man and his murals. And the admiration turns out to be mutual: Rivera encourages her to pursue painting. He sees in her a gifted artist. The two fall in love and they marry on 21 August 1929. However, the marriage will become a lingering drama of struggles and infidelity. She also never fully heals from the dramatic accident of her childhood. She will still have to visit the hospital regularly and she can hardly do without a wheelchair to move around. Moreover, she has to take persistent painkillers to cope with her pains.

Frida Kahlo, The Broken Column, 1944,
oil on masonite, 43 x 33 cm, Private collection Dolores Olmedo, Mexico City

French writer André Breton (1896-1966), founder of Surrealism, came across Kahlo's work in 1938. He became enthusiastic about the Surrealist style he thought he recognised in her work. She exhibited her paintings in New York in 1938 at Julien Levy's gallery and exhibited her work at Galerie Renou in Paris in 1939, on this occasion she became acquainted with the Surrealists. Breton invites her to join the surrealist movement. However, the artist feels too little affinity with Surrealism. Surrealists often draw inspiration from the psychoanalytic theories of Austrian psychoanalyst and neurologist Sigmund Freud. Within his psychoanalysis, the image of women is rather problematic in nature. It is predominantly founded on a masculine view of the world. Kahlo indicated that her personal experiences and reality should be considered as the underlying meaning of her artworks. It may be added that stylistically, in addition to Surrealism, her work also shows affinity with Magical Realism, Naïve Art and Primitivism.

Frida Kahlo and surrealism

On the cover of the publication Kahlo by art book publisher Taschen: A self-portrait of Frida Kahlo, with a portrait of her husband Diego Rivera on her forehead by way of a ‘third eye’.

The tough last few years

In 1950, Kahlo spent nine months at a stretch in hospital, here she painted her self-portraits lying in bed. A special easel was attached to the bed for this purpose. After being discharged from hospital, her health continued to ail and she was unable to walk properly. In 1953, her right leg was amputated up to the knee. In 1954, she develops pneumonia, which will eventually prove fatal to her; on 13 July that year, she dies in the ‘blue house’, the house in Coyoacán, where she lived and worked with Diego Rivera from 1929 to 1954.

Diego Rivera died three years later in 1957, leaving the ‘blue house’ to the Mexican people in his will, in memory of Frida Kahlo, considered by many to be Latin America's greatest artist. For others, including Kahlo herself, this may have been Diego Rivera. Nowadays the blue house houses the Museo Frida Kahlo.

If you want to immerse yourself in the gripping life story and art of the headstrong artist Frida Kahlo, don't miss the 2002 biographical drama film ‘Frida’, starring Salma Hayek.

Sander Kletter, 3rd of March 2025

This article was originally published in 2013 for Art Salon Holland, and rewritten and expanded March 2025

The highly visited Museo Frida Kahlo, located in the blue house in Coyoacán (Mexico City), where the artist lived and worked with Diego Riveira for 25 years.