Among the women artists who have transcended art history, none had such a meteoric rise as the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (1907-1954). Several generations have admired her unmistakable face, represented in more than fifty extraordinary self-portraits; these, along with hundreds of photographs taken by masters such as Manuel and Lola Álvarez Bravo, Nickolas Muray, and Martin Munkácsi, made Frida Kahlo an iconic image of 20th-century art.

After suffering an accident in her early youth, Frida decided to become a painter. Her marriage in 1929 to Diego Rivera placed her at the forefront of the artistic scene of Mexico’s cultural renaissance and also in the United States. The poet André Breton praised her work, incorporated her into the ranks of international surrealism, and exhibited her work in Paris in 1939, where Picasso, Kandinsky, and Duchamp were able to admire it.

This volume allows readers to contemplate Frida Kahlo’s paintings like never before, accompanied by famous photographs. It presents works belonging to private collections that are difficult to access and reproduces paintings that had been lost or not exhibited for more than 80 years. The volume addresses the most extensive study of Frida Kahlo’s paintings published to date.

The reader will find in this book a fascinating account of Frida Kahlo’s artistic career. We access Frida’s intimate affections and passions through a selection of drawings, pages from her personal diary, and an extensive biography illustrated with photos of Frida, Diego, and the Casa Azul, the home and center of the painter’s universe.