Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28676 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-31
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 296 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Frida Kahlo, one of the most dynamic figures of 20th-century art, has very nearly become a saint, so legendary is her tumultuous and tragic life. While there is no dearth of books about Kahlo and her work, none are as poignantly revealing as this diary, which includes her own words and pictures. We find the genesis of some of her most famous paintings, her love letters and sketches of people she knew such as her husband, the Mexican mural painter Diego Rivera, and numerous studies for self- portraits. The most fascinating part of the book is the facsimile diary, reproduced here for the first time, with colour illustrations. It is accompanied by an English translation with explanatory commentaries.

Synopsis
The intimate life of artist Frida Kahlo is wonderfully revealed in the illustrated journal she kept during her last 10 years. This passionate and at times surprising record contains the artist's thoughts, poems, and dreams; many reflecting her stormy relationship with her husband, artist Diego Rivera, along with 70 mesmerising watercolour illustrations. The text entries in brightly coloured inks make the journal as captivating to look at as it is to read. Her writing reveals the artist's political sensibilities, recollections of her childhood, and her enormous courage in the face of more than thirty-five operations to correct injuries she had sustained in an accident at the age of eighteen.

Customer Reviews

Well worth the wait
A really lovely book, everything thing about it, the weight the page thickness, the colour, makes it ascetically pleasing...not to mention the content!
Perhaps slightly incoherent but I think that this reflects exactly Kahlo's mind and her art...snippets of her life painted or written down in brutal honesty.

Inside her mind?
This book is probably the most intriguing artists' diary I have ever read. The visual experiments blend with verbal play and puns, and many odd but fascinating, slightly disjointed writings. I loved the way she used language, and played around with mantras of random words, and the sheer variety of layout and imagery, funny doodles and unconscious scribbles, is life- affirming and comforting (or at least I thought so :D ) The essay by Fuentes was one of the best and most inventive I have read of her, a life of complexity described by a poet with words. I would strongly recommend this to anyone with an interest in the woman behind the cult, it will broaden your mind beyond the cliches society has made of her life and symbolism, and will show you her very inventive interest in life.

An excellent portrayal of love's diverse effects on a woman.
Frida Kahlo was a woman of great artistic talent and her Picasso-influenced work tells a story about her life together with her husband, a man she adores so much she feels that he can move the very stars out of the sky. Her passionate and immensely detailed diary (in spanish) can be read by anyone and still touch the hearts of those who do not speak the language. The english translation allows the english-speaking reader to understand her highs and lows, but to read the actual copies of her diary really give you an understanding of her intense character.

Poetry and art fused together in an entirely unique way, this book is a treasure for the lover of both acts of expression, and the story of her life is illustrated not only in the introduction, but in the magnificent colours and words used in her diary.

This book will undoubtably inspire, shock, enlighten and touch the hearts of those who read it.