Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo
by Hayden Herrera
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Have not read this book- I have no reason not think it is good. Just wanted to comment on the cover.
I always hate buying an edition of a book with movie art on the front. Nothing ruins a copy of a Lord of the Rings book like stills from the films on the cover. Carrying that around just makes you look like such a joiner. I know-- it is big money marketing, and there is no stopping it.
But I gotta say, with an artist like Frida Kahlo, who painted so many incredible self protraits, it is just so...more
I always hate buying an edition of a book with movie art on the front. Nothing ruins a copy of a Lord of the Rings book like stills from the films on the cover. Carrying that around just makes you look like such a joiner. I know-- it is big money marketing, and there is no stopping it.
But I gotta say, with an artist like Frida Kahlo, who painted so many incredible self protraits, it is just so...more
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I wavered between four and five stars. Ended up giving it five because it was that thorough of a book. Towards the end, (on again and off again and mad again at Diego) I sort of blacked out thinking (dear god, woman, stop the madness)...but that's no fault of the author, just honest fact supplying. But it's worth reading and moves along fairly well (it can't help it- her life was incredibly interesting and connected to all sorts of odd people).
Examining Frida's life raises all sorts of ...more
Examining Frida's life raises all sorts of ...more
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This is not an accurate portrayal of Frida's life. She was more of a revolutionary than this book makes her out to be. She was also a gender-bending feminist, and a brilliant painter. Herrera makes her out to be a Diego obsessed, pain obsessed sack of shit, and i'm not buying it. Herrera also infers several things to be true from Frida's paintings. She frequently ignores literal translations from paintings including text painted in that reveals the meaning completely on it's own.
I am very s...more
I am very s...more
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Read in July, 2008
I reread this one to refresh my memory as I am leading this book for my September book club. I was suprised at how many details and events I remembered from the first time I read it. I did feel that the author painted Frida as more of a obsessive partner to Diego than I thought in my first read of her. That may be in part due to my own age and experiences or just picking up more themes I missed during my first read. I have also grown more curious as to how her illnesses - mental and physical...more
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recommended to Mahsa by:
قسمتهايي از فيلمش را ديده بودم
تا قبل از اين فريدا را نمي شناختم و خيلي تحت تاثير شخصيت مقاوم و جاه طلب اين نقاش و هنرمند بزرگ قرار گرفتم . داشتم فكر مي كردم فقط يكي از حادثه هاي وحشتناك زندگيش براي تباه شدن زندگي بيشتر زنان ايراني كافي است ! كاش زناني مثل فريدا بيشتر از اين بودند به نظر من قابل افتخارند .
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in October, 2006
One of the more thrilling biographies I've read. We often think that iconic people who are incredible at what they do are in a sense heroic. Here is an account of a woman who was quite imperfect... she was obsessed with her husband, had many affairs, smoke, drank, cursed, was overly dramatic and unafraid of being abrasive. She was politically active, but her heroism lies mostly in her ability to endure the immense physical and emotional pain she suffered (as a result of a bus accident) and the w...more
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Read in March, 2007
This is a particularly good biography - I would recommend it to anyone, not just people interested in art history. It seems to be a fairly accurate account of Frida's life (not gratuitously sensational), but it remains engaging throughout. There are relatively in-depth sections discussing specific paintings; these manage to be thought-provoking as well as accessable. The author does a commendable job of portraying "the scene": the times and places of Frida's life. But he also succeeds ...more
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Read in January, 1984
An excellent biography: why did any more need to be written?? And I must make clear that I read this book in the D.F. in the 80's after seeing her home in Coyoacan, long before the Frida craze began...Yes, I was ahead of the curve! Yes I am a trendsetter! No I'm not a sheep! seriously, Kahlo is a great artist and I hate how commodified her life and her work have become. Some great artists have as their subject the self, and the self is as rich and vast a canvas as any.
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Read in May, 1990
In 1990 I was working as an editorial assistant a at travel industry trade magazine, and given dominion over the "Mexico" section. When I met with a woman from the tourist board's pr agency, she said I absolutely had to read this book. I'd never heard of Kahlo and was immediately swept up in her glorious, tragic life and art.
I'd bought it at a used bookstore and about 30 pages were missing from the middle. Seems like a good excuse to pick up another copy and reread.
I'd bought it at a used bookstore and about 30 pages were missing from the middle. Seems like a good excuse to pick up another copy and reread.
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This is a very well-written biography of a fascinating artist and public figure. Herrara also does a wonderful job analyzing the paintings, which I particularly loved as a fan of Frida's work, but sometimes it slowed down the structure of the book or seemed meandering. The ending of the biography is beautiful, and I love that Herrara is both wry (sometimes skeptical of her subject) and lyrical in telling the story of a woman who was both.
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in July, 2005
really frustrating focus on frida's life with diego. rather than Frida it should be titled Frida and Diego, because the book essentially begins and ends with the relationship and it follows all the fascinating details of Frida's life by only linking them to Diego's influence.
In my opinion, an incredibly disappointing and misogynistic biography of a woman who deserves credit for her amazing art and politics.
In my opinion, an incredibly disappointing and misogynistic biography of a woman who deserves credit for her amazing art and politics.
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Read in May, 1991
recommends it for:
Anyone who wants to know about the artist.
This is the best bio of Frida you'll find. It s *not* a quick read. You will know the artist after you've read it though. Beautiful to read and will make you realize what the world lost with the death this amazing, gifted woman.
Strangely enough, I read this while reading the Hernandez Bros. comic Love & Rockets. They did a bio of her and I was entranced. This book was cited as reference.
Strangely enough, I read this while reading the Hernandez Bros. comic Love & Rockets. They did a bio of her and I was entranced. This book was cited as reference.
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Read in January, 1996
This was a random book lying around the house when I was in high school. Mandy brought up Frida Kahlo yesterday and I was reminded of this excellent biography and the neat experience of picking up a book as an unsophisticated suburban teenager with no knowledge about much of anything, just pleasure in reading, and letting that carry you away.
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Read in January, 1997
Frida Kahlo was such a complex indiviual, unfortunately Hayden Herrera simplifies this multifaceted artists life and passions. Like many Kahlo scholars in the 1970's she bases many of her ideas on Kahlo's work on gender stereotypes and assumptions. Read "Devouring Frida" if you are interested in a REAL analysis of the artist's life.
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I rarely read non-fiction, but I did a lot with the Frida, the picture book this year at my sites, so it motivated me to read this. I am enjoying it, but I have to stop and go. I really love real photographs in it and learning about all the fascinating people Frida hung out with. It's really making me want to go to Mexico!!
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I have issues with books changing their covers to portray the movies that have been made from them, but this one takes the cake. It's ridiculous that on a biography of Frida Kahlo there is a picture of stupid Selma Hayek. It took me YEARS to find this book with the original cover. Otherwise it's a completely lovely book.
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Read in June, 1993
There are a lot of Frida bios. I don't know if this is the best one, only the one I read. Don't be intimidated by the size. It reads well and is a gripping story, esp. if you've been thinking "I just don't get this art."
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Read in April, 2007
This is the biography that the movie "Frida" was based on, and it has the same entertaining and easy-to-follow narrative as the movie. Even though it's long, it's engaging and much more in-depth than the film. A really fascinating portrayal not only of an amazing modern artist but a complicated and extraordinary woman.
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Read in April, 2006
Felt like I was a friend of Frida reading this book. She triumphant, she gave in, but always she was having a relationship with life simultaneously in love with it and fighting it all along. A picture of a woman as unafraid to live her life as she was to portray it in her art. Fascinating.
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Read in January, 1994
recommends it for:
Seb, Cassie
One of the best books ever written on Frida. Strong recommendation for anyone interested in reading how an artist channeled her pain - directly onto her work. A fascinating vibrant study of an artist's lifetime of suffering resulting into a prolific array of unmistakeable kahlo masterpieces.
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