Devouring Frida

This provocative reassessment of Frida Kahlo’s art and legacy presents a feminist analysis of the myths surrounding her. In the late 1970's, Frida Kahlo achieved cult heroine status. Her images were splashed across billboards, magazine ads, and postcards; fashion designers copied the so-called “Frida” look in hairstyles and dress; and “Fridamania” even extended to T-shirts, jewelry, and nail polish. Margaret A. Lindauer argues that this mass market assimilation of Kahlo's identity has detracted from appreciation of her work, leading to narrow interpretations based solely on her tumultuous life. Kahlo's political and feminist activism, her stormy marriage to fellow artist Diego Rivera, and her progressively debilitated body made for a life of emotional and physical upheaval. But Lindauer questions the “author-equals-the-work” critical tradition that assumes a “one-to-one association of life events to the meaning of a painting.” In Kahlo's case, such assumptions created a devouring mythology, an iconization that separates us from the real significance of the oeuvre. Accompanied by twenty-six illustrations and deep analysis of Kahlo's central themes, this provocative, semiotic study recontextualizes an important figure in art history. At the same time, it addresses key questions about the language of interpretation, the nature of veneration, and the truths within self-representation.