Devouring Frida. Margaret A. Lindauer

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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

       LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

       PREFACE

       Introduction: Rereading Frida Kahlo

       Frida as a Wife/Artist in Mexico

       Frida of the Blood-Covered Paint Brush

       The Language of the Missing Mother

       Unveiling Politics

       Fetishizing Frida

       NOTES

       BIBLIOGRAPHY

       INDEX

       Illustrations

       1. Frida and Diego Rivera, 1931

       2. Henry Ford Hospital, 1932

       3. Insurrection Ballad of the Proletarian Revolution, “Distributing Arms,” mural by Diego Rivera, 1928

       4. Today and Tomorrow: Modern Mexico mural by Diego Rivera, 1934

       5. A Few Small Nips, 1935

       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

       10. The Broken Column, 1944

       11. Without Hope, 1945

       12. The Little Deer, 1946

       13. Tree of Hope, 1946

       14. Self-Portrait with the Portrait of Doctor Farill, 1951

       15. My Birth, 1932

       16. Tlazolteotl

       17. My Nurse and I, 1937

       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

       22. The Two Fridas, 1939

       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