Kahlo (Perfect Squares)

Kahlo (Perfect Squares) by Grange Books
English | July 1, 2005 | ISBN: 1840137614 | 80 pages | EPUB | 2.40 Mb
The painter and the person are one and inseparable and yet she wore many masks. With intimates, Frida dominated any room with her witty, brash commentary, her singular identification with the peasants of Mexico and yet her distance from them, her taunting of the Europeans and their posturing beneath banners: Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, Expressionists, Surrealists, Social Realists, etc. in search of money and rich patrons, or a seat in the academies. And yet, as her work matured, she desired recognition for herself and those paintings once given away as keepsakes. What had begun as a pastime quickly usurped her life. Her internal life caromed between exuberance and despair as she battled almost constant pain from injuries to her spine, back, right foot, right leg, plus fungal diseases, many abortion viruses and the continuing experimental ministrations of her doctors. The singular consistent joy in her life was Diego Rivera, her husband. She endured his infidelities and countered with affairs of her own on three continents, consorting with both strong men and desirable women. But in the end, Diego and Frida always came back to each other. Diego stood by her at the end as did a Mexican but was slow to realize the value of its treasure. Denied singular recognition by her native land until the last years of her life, Frida Kahlo's only one-person show in Mexico opened where her life began.