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Devouring Frida
DEVOURING
FRIDA
THE ART HISTORY AND POPULAR CELEBRITY OF FRIDA KAHLO
Margaret A. Lindauer
Published by Wesleyan University Press
Middletown, CT 06459
Originally produced in 1999 by Wesleyan/University Press of New England
Hanover, NH 03755
© 1999 by Margaret A. Lindauer
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
5 4 3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lindauer, Margaret A.
Devouring Frida : the art history and popular celebrity of Frida Kahlo / by Margaret A. Lindauer.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–8195–6347–1 (cloth : alk. paper). ISBN 0–8195–6348–x (pbk : alk. paper)
1. Kahlo, Frida—Criticism and interpretation. I. Kahlo, Frida. II. Title.
ND259.K33L56 1999
| 759.972—dc21 | 98–47641 |
To Karen and Jennifer
Contents
Introduction: Rereading Frida Kahlo
Frida as a Wife/Artist in Mexico
Frida of the Blood-Covered Paint Brush
The Language of the Missing Mother
Illustrations
1. Frida and Diego Rivera, 1931
4. Today and Tomorrow: Modern Mexico mural by Diego Rivera, 1934
6. Self-Portrait (Dedicated to Leon Trotsky), 1937
7. Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair, 1940
8. Two Nudes in a Forest, 1939
9. Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Diego, Me, and Señor Xólotl, 1949
14. Self-Portrait with the Portrait of Doctor Farill, 1951
18. Self-Portrait on the Border between Mexico and the United States, 1932
19. My Dress Hangs There, 1933
20. Four Inhabitants of Mexico, 1938
21. Remembrance of an Open Wound, 1938
23. Self-Portrait as Tehuana, 1943
24. Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, 1940
25. Mexico: Thirty Centuries of Splendors billboard
26. Self-Portrait with Monkeys, 1943
Preface
IN THE MID-1980s, when I first read a biographic account of Frida Kahlo, I was inspired but also vaguely unsettled by the tragic-heroic narrative. At the time, I was a master of fine arts student, and my sense of