72. With three of her students, c. 1946. From left, Fanny Rabel, Arturo Estrada and Arturo García Bustos.
73. Frida, c. 1947.
74. Detail from Rivera's 1947-1948 Hotel del Prado mural, in which he depicted himself as a boy; Frida's hand rests protectively on his shoulder.
75. Diego with María Félix, 1949.
76. Frida's last year in the hospital, 19501951. Above left, holding a sugar skull with her name on it; above right, painting one the succession of plaster corsets she endured; left, with Diego.
77. Painting Naturaleza Viva, at home, 1952.
78. With her servants, c. 1952.
79. Being carried into the gallery at the opening of the Homage to Frida Kahlo in 1953. Looking on are (left to right) Concha Michel, Antonio Peláez, Dr. Roberto Garza, Carmen Farell, and (lower right) Doctor Atl.
80. Marxism Will Give Health to the Sick, 1954.
81. Frida's studio, the unfinished trait of Stalin on the easel.
82. Protesting the ouster of Guatemalan president Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán by the CIA in July 1954. Juan O'Gorman is beside Frida, Diego behind her.
83. On her deathbed.
84. Diego flanked by Lázaro Cárdenas (left) and Andrés Iduarte following the hearse to the crematorium.
85. Frida's bed, Frida Kahlo museum.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The good will and generous cooperation of many people contributed to the making of this book. In particular, I am deeply indebted to Dolores Olmedo, president of the Technical Committee of the Diego Rivera Trust, not only for her intelligent insights and continuous support, but also for giving me access to and permission to quote from Frida Kahlo’s diary and personal archive. In addition, Mrs. Olmedo allowed me to reproduce her marvelous collection of Frida Kahlo’s paintings. I owe an equal debt of gratitude to Alejandro Gómez Arias, who, in a series of conversations, threw light on Kahlo’s early years. He also kindly trusted me with Frida’s letters to him and read my manuscript with intelligence and care. Special thanks go also to Isolda Kahlo for showing me family photographs and for talking about her aunt Frida for many hours. Among others I wish to thank for letting me draw on Kahlo’s correspondence and private papers are Joyce Campbell, Alberto Misrachi, Mariana Morillo Safa, Mimi Muray, Emmy Lou Packard, and Ella Wolfe. All of these were unstinting with their help in other ways as well.
Numerous people gave freely of their time and recollections in interviews with me in Mexico, the United States, and France. Lucienne Bloch, who knew Frida intimately during the 1930s, shared her diary written while she lived with Frida and Diego Rivera in Detroit, and her vivid anecdotes helped me to perceive Frida’s wit, vitality, and passion. Jean van Heijenoort, Trotsky’s secretary from 1932 to 1940, was invaluable in providing a perceptive and precise picture of Trotsky’s friendship with the Riveras. Clare Boothe Luce, a brilliant raconteuse, told the story of Frida’s friend Dorothy Hale’s suicide with wit and an eye for the manners and mores of the 1930s. Isamu Noguchi’s buoyant tales of Frida were both entertaining and insightful. In Mexico, the critic Raquel Tibol was unfailingly generous not only in sharing her memories of Frida, but also in lending intelligent advice and photographs. Frida’s friend the art historian Antonio Rodríguez shared with me his penetrating and affectionate view of Frida both in his photographs of her and in his conversations and writings. Adelina Zendejas told me with great zest of her childhood friend Frida’s schoolgirl pranks, and she lent me various of her own newspaper articles about Frida. Frida’s students Arturo García Bustos, Arturo Estrada, Guillermo Monroy, and Fanny Rabel provided a fond and bright picture of Frida as a teacher and a woman, and her doctor Guillermo Velasco y Polo was both humorous and compassionate in his telling of Frida’s illnesses and her relationship to Diego.
I am grateful as well to the following, whose memories were important in evoking a picture of Frida Kahlo: Margot Albert, Dolores Alvarez Bravo, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Carmen Corcuera Baron, Beryl Becker, Roberto BeHar, Heinz Berggruen, Adolfo Bergrunder, Lucile Blanch, Suzanne Bloch, Paul Boatine, Elena Boder, Jacqueline Breton, Sophia Caire, Nicolas Calas, Mercédez Calderón, Olga Campos, Lya Cardoza, Rosa Castro, Olga Costa, Dolores del Rio, Stephen Pope Dimitroff, Baltasar Dromundo, Marjorie Eaton, Eugenia Farill, Dr. Samuel Fastlich, Judith Ferreto, Gisèle Freund, Fernando Gamboa, Enrique García, José Gómez Robleda, Ernst Halberstadt, Andrés Henestrosa, José de Jesús Alfaro, Margarita Kahlo, María Luisa Kahlo, Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., Katherine Kuh, Marucha Lavín, Parker Lesley, Julien Levy, Antonio Luna Arroyo, David Margolis, Lupe Marín, Elena Martinez, Concha Michel, Enrique Morales Pardavé, Guadalupe Morillo Safa, Annette Nancarrow, Dr. Armando Navarro, Margarita Nelkin, Juan O’Gorman, Mr. and Mrs. Pablo O’Higgins, Esperanza Ordóñez, Antonio Peláez, Michel Petitjean, Carmen Phillips, Alice Rahon, Aurora Reyes, Jesús Ríos y Valles, Lupe Rivera de Iturbe, Mala Rubinstein, Rosamund Bernier Russell, Peggy de Salle, Bernarda Bryson Shahn, Mary Sklar, Juan Soriano, Carleta Tibón, Elena Vásquez Gómez, Esteban Volkow, Hector Xavier.
For the privilege of reproducing works of art in their possession, I am grateful to the owners, private and public, of paintings, drawings, and photographs illustrated here. A special note of appreciation is due to Dolores del Rio, Dr. Samuel Fastlich, Eugenia Farill, Jacques Gelman, Isolda Kahlo, Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., Michel Petitjean, Mary Sklar, and Jorge Espinosa Ulloa for permitting me to see and have photographed their splendid collections of paintings by Frida Kahlo. My thanks go also to Noma Copley for her constant enthusiasm and encouragement; to Mary-Anne Martin of Sotheby Parke Bernet for her insights and expertise; to Max and Joyce Kozloff for bringing Frida Kahlo to my attention in the first place and for remaining interested in hearing about her over the years; to Frances McCullough for asking me to write this book; to Miriam Kaiser and the National Institute of Fine Arts in Mexico for sharing their knowledge of the whereabouts of Kahlo’s works and other invaluable advice; to Professors Milton W. Brown, Linda Nochlin, Eugene Goossen, and Edward Sullivan for their judicious readings of the first draft of my manuscript, and to Karen and David Crommie for all their many kindnesses, which include lending me the taped interviews they made in 1968 for their award-winning film The Life and Death of Frida Kahlo.
My sincere thanks go also to the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New york for all the help and encouragement I received, including a grant from the Art History Program Dissertation Fund. Various people have labored with good humor and tenacity over the typing of this book. They include Jean Zangus, Kriss Larsen, Leslie Palmer, and Liza Pulitzer (who extended many other courtesies as well). My thanks, too, to Toni Rachiele, the production editor, who spent many late hours making sure my manuscript would become a book. I want to give a special note of appreciation to my editor, Corona Machemer, for her commitment, enthusiasm, and constant understanding. Finally, and primarily, I am deeply grateful to my husband, Philip Herrera, and to our children, Margot and John, for their support and patience throughout the writing of Frida.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS AND CATALOGUES
Brenner, Anita. Idols Behind Altars. New York: Payson & Clarke, 1929.
Breton, André. Surrealism and Painting. Trans. Simon Watson Taylor. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1972.
Charlot, Jean. The Mexican Mural Renaissance: 1920-1925. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1967.
del Conde, Teresa. Vida de Frida Kahlo. Mexico City: Secretaría de la Presidencia, Departamento Editorial, 1976.
Dromundo, Baltasar. Mi Calle de San Idelfonso. Mexico City: Editorial Guarania, 1956.
Flores Guerrero, Raúl. Cinco Pintores Mexicanos. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1957.
Gruening, Ernest. Mexico and Its Heritage. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1928.
Heijenoort, Jean van. With Trotsky in Exile: From Prinkipo to Coyoacán. Cambridge, Mass., and London: Harvard University Press, 1978.
Helm, MacKinley. Modern Mexican
Painters. New York: Dover, 1968.
Henestrosa, Andrés. Una Alacena de Alacenas. Mexico City: Ediciones de Bellas Artes, 1970.
Museum of Contemporary Art. Frida Kahlo. Exhibition catalogue. Chicago: The Museum of Contemporary Art, 1978. Essay by Hayden Herrera.
Herrera, Hayden. Frida Kahlo: Her Life, Her Art. A dissertation submitted to the graduate faculty in art history in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York, 1981. To be made available by University Microfilms.
Institute Nacional de Bellas Artes. Diego Rivera: Exposición Nacional de Homenaje. Exhibition catalogue. Mexico City: Institute Nacional de Bellas Artes, 1977.
Institute Nacional de Bellas Artes. Frida Kahlo: Exposición National de Homenaje. Exhibition catalogue. Mexico City: Institute Nacional de Bellas Artes, 1977. Essays by Alejandro Gómez Arias and Teresa del Conde.
Institute Nacional de Bellas Artes. Frida Kahlo Acompañada de Siete Pintoras. Exhibition catalogue. Mexico City: Institute Nacional de Bellas Artes, 1967.
Organizing Committee of the Games of the XIX Olympiad. The Frida Kahlo Museum. Catalogue with texts by Lola Olmedo de Olvera, Diego Rivera and Juan O’Gorman. Mexico City: Organizing Committee of the Games of the XIX Olympiad, 1968.
Paz, Octavio. The Labyrinth of Solitude: Life and Thought in Mexico. Translated by Lysander Kemp. New York: Grove, 1961.
Rivera, Diego, with March, Gladys. My Art, My Life: An Autobiography. New York: Citadel, 1960.
Rodríguez Prampolini, Ida. El Surrealismo y el Arte Fantástico de México. Mexico City: Instituto de Investigaciónes Estéticas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, 1969.
Schmeckebier, Laurence E. Modern Mexican Art. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1939.
Technical Committee of the Diego Rivera Trust. Museo Frida Kahlo. Museum catalogue with texts by Carlos Pellicer and Diego Rivera. Mexico City, Technical Committee of the Diego Rivera Trust, 1958.
Tibol, Raquel. Frida Kahlo. Translated by Helga Prignitz. Frankfurt: Verlag Neue Kritik, 1980.
Tibol, Raquel. Frida Kahlo: Crónica, Testimonios y Aproximaciones. Mexico City: Ediciones de Cultura Popular, S.A., 1977.
Trotsky, Leon. Writings of Leon Trotsky: 1936–1937 and 1938–1939. 12 volumes covering 1929–1940. Ed. Naomi Allen and George Breitman. New York: Pathfinder, 1969–1975.
Westheim, Paul. The Art of Ancient Mexico. Trans. by Ursula Bernard. New York: Doubleday (Anchor), 1965.
Whitechapel Art Gallery. Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti. Exhibition catalogue. London, 1982. Essay by Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen.
Wolfe, Bertram D. Diego Rivera: His Life and Times. New York and London: Knopf, 1939.
Wolfe, Bertram D. The Fabulous Life of Diego Rivera. New York: Stein and Day, 1963.
Wolfe, Bertram D., and Rivera, Diego. Portrait of Mexico. Text by Bertram D. Wolfe. Illustrated with paintings by Diego Rivera. New York: Covici, Friede, 1937.
ARTICLES IN PERIODICALS, NEWSPAPERS AND PAMPHLETS
Bambi. “Frida Dice Lo Que Sabe.” Excelsior (Mexico City), June 15, 1954, pp. 1,7.
Bambi. “Frida Kahlo Es una Mitád.” Excelsior (Mexico City), June 13, 1954, p. 6.
Bambi. “Manuel, el Chófer de Diego Rivera, Encontró Muerta Ayer a Frida Kahlo, en su Gran Cama que Tiene Dosel de Espejo.” Excelsior (Mexico City), July 14, 1954, pp. 1,5.
Bambi. “Un Remedio de Lupe Marín.” Excelsior (Mexico City), June 16, 1954, p. 3.
“Bomb Beribboned.” Time, Nov. 14, 1938, p. 29.
Cardona Peña, Alfredo. “Frida Kahlo.” Novedades (Mexico City), Supplement, “México en la Cultura,” July 17, 1955.
Cardoza y Aragón, Luis. “Frida Kahlo.” Novedades (Mexico City), Supplement, “México en la Cultura,” Jan. 23, 1955, p. 3.
Castro, Rosa. “Carta a Frida Kahlo.” Excelsior (Mexico City), Supplement, “Diorama de la Cultura,” July 31, 1955, p. 1.
Castro, Rosa. “Cartas de Amor: Un Libro de Frida Kahlo.” Siempre (Mexico City), June 12, 1954, p. 70.
de la Torriente, Loló. “Recuerdos de Frida Kahlo.” El Nacional (Mexico City), Supplement, “Revista Mexicana de Cultura,” Apr. 8, 1979, pp. 1, 8–9.
de la Torriente, Loló. “Verdad y Mentira en la Vida de Frida Kahlo y Diego Rivera.” Undated newspaper clipping in the Diego Rivera file in the library of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, pp. 8,21.
Dromundo, Baltasar. “Frida Kahlo, la Niña de la Mochila.” El Sol de México (Section D), Apr. 22, 1974.
Flores Guerrero, Raúl. “Frida Kahlo: Su Ser y su Arte.” Novedades (Mexico City), Supplement, “México en la Cultura,” June 10, 1951.
Freund, Gisèle. “Imagen de Frida Kahlo.” Novedades (Mexico City), Supplement, “México en la Cultura,” June 10, 1951, p. 1.
Galerías de la Ciudad de Mexico in collaboration with the Frida Kahlo Museum. Homenaje a Frida Kahlo. Exhibition brochure. 1967.
Goméz Arias, Alejandro. “Un Testimonio Sobre Frida Kahlo.” Essay included in Frida Kahlo: Exposición Nacional de Homenaje. Institute Nacional de Bellas Artes, 1977.
González Ramírez, Manuel. “Frida Kahlo.” Apr. 24, 1953. Unidentified newspaper clipping, Isolda Kahlo archive.
González Ramírez, Manuel. “Frida Kahlo o el Imperativo de Vivir.” Huytlate 2 (1954): 7–25.
Henestrosa, Andrés. “Frida.” Novedades (Mexico City), Supplement, “México en la Cultura,” July 17, 1955, p. 5.
Herrera, Hayden. “Frida Kahlo.” Essay in Women Artists: 1550–1950, by Ann Sutherland Harris and Linda Nochlin, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1976, pp. 335–37.
Herrera, Hayden. “Frida Kahlo: Her Life, Her Art.” Artforum 14 (May 1976): 38–44.
Herrera, Hayden. “Frida Kahlo: ’Sacred Monsters’.” Ms. 6 (February 1978): 29–31.
Herrera, Hayden. “Frida Kahlo’s Art.” artscanda, Issue No. 230-31 (October–November 1979): 25-28.
Herrera, Hayden. “Portrait of Frida Kahlo as a Tehuana.” Heresies, winter, 1978, pp. 57–58.
Herrera, Hayden. “Portraits of a Marriage.” Connoisseur 209 (March 1982): 124–128.
Kahlo, Frida. “The Birth of Moses.” Tin-Tan 1 (summer–fall 1975): 2–6.
Kahlo, Frida. “Frida Habla de su Pintura.” Undated newspaper clipping, Antonio Rodríguez’s archive.
Kahlo, Frida. “Retrato de Diego.” Novedades (Mexico City), Supplement, “México en la Cultura,” July 17, 1955, p. 5.
Kozloff, Joyce. “Frida Kahlo.” Women’s Studies 6 (1978): 43–59.
“Mexican Autobiography,” Time, Apr. 27, 1953, p. 90.
Monroy, Guillermo. “Homenaje de un Pintor a Frida Kahlo a los 22 Años de su Muerte.” Excelsior (Mexico City), July 17, 1976, p. 8.
Monroy, Guillermo. “Hoy Hace 24 Años que Falleció Frida Kahlo.” Excelsior (Mexico City), July 13, 1978, p. 2.
Monteforte Toledo, Mario. “Frida: Paisaje de Si Mísma.” Novedades (Mexico City), Supplement, “México en la Cultura,” June 10, 1951, p. 1–2.
Moreno Villa, José. “La Realidad y el Deseo en Frida Kahlo.” Novedades (Mexico City), Supplement, “México en la Cultura,” Apr. 26, 1953, p. 5.
O’Gorman, Juan. “Frida Kahlo.” In The Frida Kahlo Museum. Catalogue published by the Organizing Committee of the Games of the XIX Olympiad, Mexico City, 1968, p. 12.
Oliver, Rosa María. “Frida la Unica y Verdadera Mitád de Diego.” Novedades (Mexico City), Supplement, “México en la Cultura,” August 1959, p. 7.
Orenstein, Gloria. “Frida Kahlo: Painting for Miracles.” Feminist Art Journal, fall 1973, pp. 7–9.
Poniatowska, Elena. “El Museo Frida Kahlo.” Novedades (Mexico City), Supplement, “México en la Cultura,” July 7, 1958, p. 11.
Rivera, Diego. “Frida Kahlo: Biographical Sketch.” Written for the National Institute of Fine Arts of Mexico in August 1954 for the exhibition of Mexican painting in Lima, Peru; excerpt reprinted in The Frida Kahlo Museum (catalogue published by the O
rganizing Committee of the Games of the XIX Olympiad in 1968), p. 8.
Rivera, Diego. “Frida Kahlo y el Arte Mexicano.” Bolitín del Seminario de Cultura Mexicana, no. 2. Mexico City: Secretaría de Educatión Pública (October 1943): 89–101.
Robles, Antonio. “La Personalidad de Frida Kahlo.” Undated newspaper clipping, Isolda Kahlo archive.
Rodríguez, Antonio. “Frida Abjura del Surrealismo.” Undated newspaper clipping, Antonio Rodríguez archive, n.p.
Rodríguez, Antonio. “Frida Kahlo.” In “Pintores de Mexico” series. Undated newspaper clipping, Isolda Kahlo archive, p. 18.
Rodríguez, Antonio. “Frida Kahlo, Expresionista de su Yo Interno.” Mañana (Mexico City). Undated newspaper clipping, Antonio Rodríguez archive, pp. 67–69.
Rodríguez, Antonio. “Frida Kahlo: Heroína del Dolor.” Novedades (Mexico City), Supplement, “México en la Cultura,” July 17, 1955, pp. 1,4.
Rodríguez, Antonio. “Frida Kahlo: El Homenaje Postumo de México a la Gran Artista.” Impacto (Mexico City) 7 (1958): 49–51.
Rodríguez, Antonio. “Una Pintora Extraordinaria: La Vigorosa Obra de Frieda Kahlo, Surge de su Propia Tragedia, con Fuerza y Personalidad Excepcionales.” Undated newspaper clipping, Antonio Rodríguez, archive, n.p.
Ross, Betty. “Como Pinta Frida Kahlo, Esposa de Diego, las Emociones Intimas de la Mujer.” Excelsior (Mexico City), Oct. 21, 1942, p. 6.
Tibol, Raquel. “Frida Kahlo: En el Segundo Aniversario de su Muerte.” Novedades (Mexico City), Supplement, “México en la Cultura,” July 15, 1956, p. 4.
Tibol, Raquel. “Frida Kahlo, Maestra de Pintura.” Excelsior (Mexico City), Supplement, “Diorama de la Cultura,” Aug. 7, 1960.
Frida Page 54
