The Labyrinth of Frida Kahlo (Spanish w/ English Translation & Commentary) (English and Spanish Edition)

Cartas ilustradas, dibujos y notas Intimas Illustrated letters, drawings and intimate notes A collection of more than 1200 Frida Kahlo letters, poems, paintings drawings and personal mementos has been recently discovered, investigated, and catalogued by the Centro del Investigacion del Arte Mexicano (CIAM), in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Published here for the first time, selections from that collection are presented in Spanish with English translation and historical annotations. These works, chosen for their freshness and their intensity, offer new and special insights into the conflicting feelings that shaped Frida Kahlo's life the combination of horror and humor, honesty and anger, with which Kahlo met sex, death, pain, and betrayal. These works, produced and hoarded over decades of Frida Kahlo s life, reveal how ambivalent she was about the most important aspects of her life. Frida portrays her damaged leg as both wonderful and horrible, often in the same drawing. Her pictures of an aborted child fascinate and repel, as do her drawings of medical procedures, mutilations, amputations, violent accidents, and internal organs. Frida was fascinated by the bodies of animals - from birds and butterflies to toads and flies. She frequently described and pictured Diego as her toad, with a mixture of deep affection and deep disdain. She constantly appears as a bird, a familiar, sometimes silent, but more often one that speaks for Frida herself by annotations on her drawings. More important still is the way that Kahlo used her ambivalence to fuel her art, creating words and pictures that are powerfully affecting in their earthy yet transcendent treatment of bodies, relationships, and death. Centro del Investigacion del Arte Mexicano (CIAM) San Miguel de Allende Comentario: Jennifer Church Traducciones: Polly Ortega Fotografy anotaciones: Daniel Friedman