Frida Kahlo

Born near Mexico City in 1907, Frida Kahlo is considered one of Mexico’s greatest artists. She took up painting after a bus accident left her severely injured, was a Communist, married Diego Rivera, a celebrated muralist, became friends with Trotsky and developed an iconic series of self-portraits. Her work brings together elements such as surrealism, pop culture, Aztec and Indian mythology and commentary on Mexican culture. In 1938, artist and poet Andre Breton organised an exhibition of her work in New York, writing in the catalogue, “The Art of Frida Kahlo is a ribbon around a bomb.” She was not as widely appreciated during her lifetime as she has since become, but is now one of the most recognised artists of the 20th century.

→ Listen on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Patience Schell 2 episodes
  Chair in Hispanic Studies at the University of Aberdeen
• Valerie Fraser No other episodes
  Emeritus Professor of Latin American Art at the University of Essex
• Alan Knight 4 episodes
  Emeritus Professor of the History of Latin America at the University of Oxford

Reading list

• Frida Kahlo
  Gannit Ankori (Reaktion Books, 2013) Google Books →
• Frida Kahlo: 'I Paint My Reality'
  Christina Burrus (Thames and Hudson, 2008) Google Books →
• Frida Kahlo
  Emma Dexter and Tanya Barson (eds.) (Tate Publishing, 2005) Google Books →
• Frida Kahlo: Song of Herself
  Salomon Grimberg (Merrell Publishers, 2008) Google Books →
• Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo
  Hayden Herrera (Harper Perennial, 2002) Google Books →
• Frida Kahlo: The Paintings
  Hayden Herrera (Bloomsbury Publishing, 1993) Google Books →
• The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait
  Frida Kahlo, Sarah M. Lowe and Carlos Fuentes (Abrams Books, 2006) Google Books →
• Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti Exhibition Catalogue
  Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti (Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1982) Google Books →
• Frida Kahlo
  Andrea Kettenmann (Taschen GmbH, 2000) Google Books →
• Dreaming with his Eyes Open: A Life of Diego Rivera
  Patrick Marnham (Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998) Google Books →
• Frida Kahlo: Brush of Anguish
  Martha Zamora (Chronicle Books, 1990) Google Books →

Related episodes

• Berthe Morisot
  
  13 Oct, 2022 750 Painting
• Picasso’s Guernica
  
  2 Nov, 2017 700 Arts
• The Mexican Revolution
  
  20 Jan, 2011 970 History of North America
• Munch and The Scream
  
  18 Mar, 2010 750 Painting
• Hokusai
  
  30 Mar, 2017 750 Painting
• Vincent van Gogh
  
  21 Dec, 2023 750 Painting
• Lorca
  
  4 Jul, 2019 860 Spanish, Portuguese, Galician literatures
• Nefertiti
  
  18 Jan, 2024 930 History of the Ancient World
• The Avant Garde’s Decline and Fall in the 20th Century
  
  25 Feb, 1999 700 Arts
• Jorge Luis Borges
  
  6 Apr, 2006 860 Spanish, Portuguese, Galician literatures

Experimental. For more related episodes, visit the visual explorer.

---

Programme ID: b06125zc

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06125zc

Auto-category: 759.972 (Mexican Art and Artists)