The arresting pictures of Frida Kahlo (1907-54) were in many ways expressions of trauma. Through a near-fatal road accident at the age of 18, failing health, a turbulent marriage, miscarriage and childlessness, she transformed the afflictions into revolutionary art.In literal or metaphorical self-portraiture, Kahlo looks out at the viewer with an audacious glare, rejecting her destiny as a passive victim and rather intertwining expressions of her experience into a hybrid real-surreal language of living: hair, roots, veins, vines, tendrils and fallopian tubes. Many of her works also explore the Communist political ideals which Kahlo shared with her husband Diego Rivera. The artist described her paintings as "the most sincere and real thing that I could do in order to express what I felt inside and outside of myself."This book introduces the rich body of Kahlo's work to explore her unremitting determination as an artist, and her significance as a painter, feminist icon, and a pioneer of Latin American culture.About the seriesBorn back in 1985, the Basic Art Series has evolved into the best-selling art book collection ever published. Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Art series features: a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importancea concise biographyapproximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions
Les toiles captivantes de Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) �taient � bien des �gards l'expression d'un traumatisme. Tr�s grave accident de la route � 18 ans, sant� fragile, mariage houleux, fausse couche et absence d'enfant, elle transforma toutes ses souffrances en art r�volutionnaire.Dans ses autoportraits fid�les ou m�taphoriques, Kahlo pose sur le spectateur un regard br�lant d'audace, elle rejette son destin de victime passive et pr�f�re entrelacer les expressions de son exp�rience pour fa�onner un lexique vital hybride o� se m�lent r�el et surr�el: cheveux, racines, veines, tendons et trompes ut�rines. Nombre de ses oeuvres explorent aussi les id�aux politiques communistes qu'elle partage avec Rivera. Elle d�crivit ses toiles comme la chose la plus sinc�re et la plus r�elle que je pouvais faire pour exprimer ce que je ressentais � l'int�rieur et � l'ext�rieur de moi-m�me .Ce livre pr&#