Special Collections celebrates Women’s History Month with its featured book for March: Frida: Bringing Frida Kahlo’s Life And Art To Film written by Julie Taymor, the first woman to win the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical.
Artist Frida Kahlo was born on July 6, 1907, in Coyocoán, Mexico City, Mexico. Considered one of Mexico’s greatest artists, Frida Kahlo began painting after she was severely injured in a bus accident. Kahlo later became politically active and married fellow communist artist Diego Rivera in 1929. She exhibited her paintings in Paris and Mexico before her death in 1954.
Frida, the person and her art, defy easy definition. Rather, they lend themselves to ambiguous description. Often volatile and obsessive, Frida was alternately hopeful and despairing. She loved dancing and crowds and flirtation and seduction – and was often miserably lonely, begging friends and lovers to visit, not to “forget” her. She had a ferocious and often black sense of humor, as well as a sharp command of wit and metaphor.
Frida: Bringing Frida Kahlo’s Life And Art To Film is begins with a forward by Kayden Herrera and with introductions by Julie Taymor and Salma Hayek. The book is a companion title to Julie Taymor’s movie “Frida”, depicting the true story of Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) and her husband Diego Rivera (1186-1957), the Mexican painters whose acclaimed work and passionate love affair characterized them during the first half of the twentieth century. Full-color photographs illustrate the screenplay text, as well as interviews with cast and crew members, director’s notes and descriptions of how they created unique sequences of the movie. The sidebars naming many of the people who appear in the film are very helpful, especially the side-by-side comparison of the paintings and the excerpts from Frida’s life which inspired them.
The Search for the Frida Kahlo’s Life And Art To Film is part of the Rogg Collection. To read it and learn more about Frida Kahlo’s life, please visit Special Collections, located on the second floor of the Bartle Library. Special Collections is open Monday – Friday, 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.