What do you think?
Rate this book
Frida Kahlo: The Brush of Anguish
A stunning collection of pictures and commentary reveals the life and artistry of the flamboyant and enigmatic Mexican painter
144 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1987
10 people are currently reading
439 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
March 21, 2013
"I began my work in total fascination before the perfect romantic heroine: one who suffered greatly, died young [...]. My profile turned out to be too simple and narrow to contain the vital force of Frida Kahlo[...]
She smoked too much and drank to excess. Bisexual during much of her life and lesbian in her last years, Frida was unfaithful to her husband with the same frequency he evidently was with her."
This book is a most recommended reading. It debunks the 'holler than thou' feminist myths and shows, for example, Frida's skill at manipulating the media of her day and creating herself into a public image - almost like we do, in a DIY way, in our current on-line lives.
It is a very sharp but sympathetic portrait of a human phenomenon that was Frida. It is very inspiring to learn about her ways of putting a show, despite all the real and metaphorical handicaps.
She smoked too much and drank to excess. Bisexual during much of her life and lesbian in her last years, Frida was unfaithful to her husband with the same frequency he evidently was with her."
This book is a most recommended reading. It debunks the 'holler than thou' feminist myths and shows, for example, Frida's skill at manipulating the media of her day and creating herself into a public image - almost like we do, in a DIY way, in our current on-line lives.
It is a very sharp but sympathetic portrait of a human phenomenon that was Frida. It is very inspiring to learn about her ways of putting a show, despite all the real and metaphorical handicaps.
January 17, 2024
Frida’s among some of rhe coolest, most interesting and complex people of all time - I liked this one better than Raquel tibol’s Frida biography because it didn’t cram itself with stuffy art world facts, just the beautiful story and artwork of her life that she turned into from the crushing pains and sufferings of her horrifying injury -
April 1, 2012
I believe I first became aware of Frida Kahlo's work from a biographical TV special on PBS. I thought her painting was very surreal and interesting, so the name stuck in my mind. Just by chance, I wandered down the aisle of artbooks in the Niles Library and spotted her name on the spine of one of the books. I had to get it!
Besides being a great painter, Frida Khalo was an interesting and complex personality. This biography is a wonderful look into her life as well as her paintings.
Besides being a great painter, Frida Khalo was an interesting and complex personality. This biography is a wonderful look into her life as well as her paintings.
April 11, 2018
I've always admired Frida, but more as a woman than an artist. After reading this, I still admire her tenacity and spirit and bravery, but I understand her artistry on a whole new level. It made me love her all the more.
March 9, 2016
Es algo parecido a la devoción lo que siento por Frida Khalo (1907-1954), por su figura, por su pasión, por su libertad absoluta. Durante algún tiempo busqué «el libro» con mayúsculas de entre los centenares que se han escrito sobre ella, uno fiel que aunara su biografía, su alma y su obra. Lo encontré o, mejor dicho, me lo encontraron, como no podía ser de otra manera, en México. Frida: el pincel de la angustia viajó sus doce horas en avión en una maleta de mano con una maravillosa dedicatoria dentro. LA RESEÑA SIGUE AQUÍ: http://www.elbuscalibros.com/2016/03/...
July 29, 2015
Wonderful biography. A clear, warm depiction of Kahlo that feels authentic. Well-curated selection of her work, I felt like the choices revealed a lot about her style and her inner life. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a closer look at Frida Kahlo.
Read
July 15, 2014"She displayed on a bookshelf a jar containing a fetus in formaldehyde, which she presented to visitors as her own still-born child."
Cool.
Cool.
August 15, 2011
After reading Lacuna, I was interested in seeing some of Kahlo's work, and this book had nice pictures and also had biographical information on Kahlo.
September 12, 2012
I love Frida's work and everything she represented as a woman, artist, political activist, wife...
January 13, 2020
5/5
i love Frida Kahlo in classic teenage girl fashion. i love her in the way that we love sylvia plath,
(perhaps a little more intensely.) i love the hugeness of her emotions, i love how she always seemed to find the energy to put on a show, i love her art, i love her look. her artwork is amazing, it's beautiful and moving and emotive, but Frida herself? she's so incredibly interesting, and this book showed me that in ways i was completely unaware of. i loved seeing so much of her art, but also so many pictures of her, and i found the book itself to be very well done.
i even enjoyed two quotes from the preface a ton;
"I began my research for the Spanish-language edition of this book twenty-seven years after Frida Kahlo's death, when the recollections of her contemperaries were already worn smooth by repetition and selected by memory. The soul's capricious reporter, memory filters out what hurts, combines the incidents that remain, and then adapts them to the form it wants to remember. Memory composes its own truth.
&
"We frequently sculpt our important personalities in marble, polishing them to excess, until, frightened by their purity, we draw away from them. I prefer to show Frida with the fragility and imperfection of a human being, one whose talent has left us an exceptional and thrilling body of work. But I am aware that every individual is a mystery. Frida is still so near that the events I narrate involve many people who are living. and further confounding my investigations, each of them offers personal, often differing, interpretations of Kahlo's story."
"A marvelous masochist, Frida united the natural anguish of her fate with an enormous propensity for self-destruction. Placing herself constantly in extreme situations, she tested her limits with vital intensity. Her paintings reveal her interior world at the same time that they force an awareness of her loneliness and misery. Standing alone, they have a value that requires no biographical corroboration."
i think zamora does an excellent job of presenting Frida as a human with many flaws.
there was also a part where zamora mentions that the children of Frida's friends remember her as a "beautiful lady who smelled good, covered with fuzz like a peach," someone who let them play with all the marvelous contents of her handbag and whose use of bad words made them laugh."
and MAN. what a legacy !!!!!
i loved the mentioning of her being associated with surrealists for a bit, and then that being cleared up with her quote:
"I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality."
was blown away by the way she painted her plaster corset, and the few diary pages i got to see in this book. planning on trying to read that next!!
a beautiful book for an incredible (& beautiful) woman.
i also (!!!) got to see so much of her art once again, and i noted some of my favorites:
- The Dream, 1940
- Self Portrait Wearing a Velvet Dress, 1926
- Portrait of Alicia Galant, 1927
- Portrait of Miguel N. Lira, 1927
- Henry Ford Hospital, 1032
- My Birth, 1932
- Portrait of Cristina, My Sister, 1928
- My Dress Hangs There (New York) 1933
- Self Portrait on the Border between Mexico and the United States, 1932
- A Few Small Nips, 1935
- My Parrots and I, 1941
- The Suicide of Dorothy Hale, 1938-39
- Self Portrait Dedicated to Dr. Elosser, 1940
- Self Portrait with Cropped Hair, 1940
- Self Portrait with Monkey, 1938
- Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, 1940
- Self Portrait as a Tehuana (Diego in My Thoughts) 1943
- Self Portrait Dedicated to Marte R. Gomez, 1946
- Thinking of Death, 1945
- Diego and I, 1949
- The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Me, Diego, and Mr. Xolotol, 1949
- Self Portrait with Braid, 1941
- Self Portrait with Monkeys, 1943
- Magnolias, 1945
- Portrait of Mariana Morillo Safa, 1944
- Moses, 1945
- Four Inhabitants of Mexico City, 1938
- Roots (The Pedregal), 1943
- What the Water Gave Me, 1938
- Self Portrait with Unbound Hair, `1947
- Tree of Hope, 1946
- The Broken Column, 1944
- Without Hope, 1945
i love Frida Kahlo in classic teenage girl fashion. i love her in the way that we love sylvia plath,
(perhaps a little more intensely.) i love the hugeness of her emotions, i love how she always seemed to find the energy to put on a show, i love her art, i love her look. her artwork is amazing, it's beautiful and moving and emotive, but Frida herself? she's so incredibly interesting, and this book showed me that in ways i was completely unaware of. i loved seeing so much of her art, but also so many pictures of her, and i found the book itself to be very well done.
i even enjoyed two quotes from the preface a ton;
"I began my research for the Spanish-language edition of this book twenty-seven years after Frida Kahlo's death, when the recollections of her contemperaries were already worn smooth by repetition and selected by memory. The soul's capricious reporter, memory filters out what hurts, combines the incidents that remain, and then adapts them to the form it wants to remember. Memory composes its own truth.
&
"We frequently sculpt our important personalities in marble, polishing them to excess, until, frightened by their purity, we draw away from them. I prefer to show Frida with the fragility and imperfection of a human being, one whose talent has left us an exceptional and thrilling body of work. But I am aware that every individual is a mystery. Frida is still so near that the events I narrate involve many people who are living. and further confounding my investigations, each of them offers personal, often differing, interpretations of Kahlo's story."
"A marvelous masochist, Frida united the natural anguish of her fate with an enormous propensity for self-destruction. Placing herself constantly in extreme situations, she tested her limits with vital intensity. Her paintings reveal her interior world at the same time that they force an awareness of her loneliness and misery. Standing alone, they have a value that requires no biographical corroboration."
i think zamora does an excellent job of presenting Frida as a human with many flaws.
there was also a part where zamora mentions that the children of Frida's friends remember her as a "beautiful lady who smelled good, covered with fuzz like a peach," someone who let them play with all the marvelous contents of her handbag and whose use of bad words made them laugh."
and MAN. what a legacy !!!!!
i loved the mentioning of her being associated with surrealists for a bit, and then that being cleared up with her quote:
"I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality."
was blown away by the way she painted her plaster corset, and the few diary pages i got to see in this book. planning on trying to read that next!!
a beautiful book for an incredible (& beautiful) woman.
i also (!!!) got to see so much of her art once again, and i noted some of my favorites:
- The Dream, 1940
- Self Portrait Wearing a Velvet Dress, 1926
- Portrait of Alicia Galant, 1927
- Portrait of Miguel N. Lira, 1927
- Henry Ford Hospital, 1032
- My Birth, 1932
- Portrait of Cristina, My Sister, 1928
- My Dress Hangs There (New York) 1933
- Self Portrait on the Border between Mexico and the United States, 1932
- A Few Small Nips, 1935
- My Parrots and I, 1941
- The Suicide of Dorothy Hale, 1938-39
- Self Portrait Dedicated to Dr. Elosser, 1940
- Self Portrait with Cropped Hair, 1940
- Self Portrait with Monkey, 1938
- Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, 1940
- Self Portrait as a Tehuana (Diego in My Thoughts) 1943
- Self Portrait Dedicated to Marte R. Gomez, 1946
- Thinking of Death, 1945
- Diego and I, 1949
- The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Me, Diego, and Mr. Xolotol, 1949
- Self Portrait with Braid, 1941
- Self Portrait with Monkeys, 1943
- Magnolias, 1945
- Portrait of Mariana Morillo Safa, 1944
- Moses, 1945
- Four Inhabitants of Mexico City, 1938
- Roots (The Pedregal), 1943
- What the Water Gave Me, 1938
- Self Portrait with Unbound Hair, `1947
- Tree of Hope, 1946
- The Broken Column, 1944
- Without Hope, 1945
June 20, 2021
I am a big fan of author/maestra Martha Zamora. I am a Fridólogo and I can say that Zamora is one of the top researchers in all things Frida Kahlo.
This book is a small biography of Frida, it's well written and has beautiful photographs of Frida's life, friends and paintings.
Zamora has a way to set the mood and even though she does have an admiration for Frida she does it very professionally. What I mean by this is that many people that write about Frida get a spell put on them, they fall into the Fridamania ( Liking all things Frida and forgetting Frida was a person with good and bad traits). She writes down what she has discovered and let's the reader come up with their own conclusion.
This book also includes a timeline in chronological order of Frida's life and a list of information on all.the images used, which is great if you are like me and want to get the proper information.
Highly recommend this book if you are interested in Frida Kahlo. This book will definitely introduce you to her world.
I also have pages dedicated to Frida if anyone is interested, love to discuss and answer questions.
Facebook: Santa Frida
Instagram: _santa_frida_
Twitter: santa_frida
Tumblr: santafrida
This book is a small biography of Frida, it's well written and has beautiful photographs of Frida's life, friends and paintings.
Zamora has a way to set the mood and even though she does have an admiration for Frida she does it very professionally. What I mean by this is that many people that write about Frida get a spell put on them, they fall into the Fridamania ( Liking all things Frida and forgetting Frida was a person with good and bad traits). She writes down what she has discovered and let's the reader come up with their own conclusion.
This book also includes a timeline in chronological order of Frida's life and a list of information on all.the images used, which is great if you are like me and want to get the proper information.
Highly recommend this book if you are interested in Frida Kahlo. This book will definitely introduce you to her world.
I also have pages dedicated to Frida if anyone is interested, love to discuss and answer questions.
Facebook: Santa Frida
Instagram: _santa_frida_
Twitter: santa_frida
Tumblr: santafrida
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 8, 2021
Les biographies c'est pas trop mon truc, mais de temps en temps, j'en trouve qui sont vraiment excellentes, alors je leur donne une chance de temps à autre. Celle-ci ne m'a malheureusement pas plu... le style d'écriture est assez plat, on nous énumère faits et noms sans particulièrement chercher à nous faire entrer dans "l'histoire".
Mais j'ai beaucoup aimé les nombreuses illustrations, et ça reste un livre utile si on veut se renseigner sur Frida Kahlo.
Mais j'ai beaucoup aimé les nombreuses illustrations, et ça reste un livre utile si on veut se renseigner sur Frida Kahlo.
July 29, 2021
A beautiful overview of Kahlo's life and work. The book is filled with large reproductions of many of Kahlo's paintings, many of which I had not seen before. This book was easily read in a couple hours and it did not disappoint. If you love Frida Kahlo or just want to know a little more about her I highly recommend picking up this book.
December 15, 2019
So informative, learned a lot of things about her life and it wasn't a complicated book with lots of dates that can be confusing. Is well edited and divided by chapters of her life. 10/10 would recommend.
April 20, 2023
Some portions felt a bit inaccurate (especially statements related to her diary) but overall a very thorough and insightful look at her life. The accompanying pictures and documents were a nice touch!
August 5, 2024
Frida is one of my heroes and someone I’ve admired so much ever since I got to visit Casa Azul. This book was great and really tried to stay true to Frida’s complex character. Which makes me love her all the more. Viva La Vida!
August 23, 2018
A sweetly written, informative biography filled with photographs and many reproductions of Kahlo’s famous and lesser known paintings that serves as a wonderful intro into her life and oeuvre.
March 2, 2020
Me encanta como se aborda la vida de Frida Kahlo, es un libro biográfico y tiene fotografias geniales, vale la pena para los amantes de la vida y obra de Frida Kahlo
May 31, 2025
I can't give an unbiased opinion. I'm quite amazed by Frida
August 18, 2014
Recent trivia q's clashed with seeing this book in a library display. Kahlo is not the kind of personality I like--hyperbolic, always on display. Neither is her art, varying between solipsistic self portraits and surreal imagery in a rather flat style. But it's an interesting glimpse into history, Mexico post-Revolution, women trying to redefine their position, the dreams of communism, and the state of medicine at that time. Many large full color images of her paintings and photos from the time.
January 19, 2015
I really like this book because it was filled with photos of Frida's paintings and photos of her with friends, her relatives, and a couple of her smiling which is rare. There was enough information on her life presented to get a feel of who she was without getting too bogged down into details. There was also info beyond the usual mythology of her life. After studying her life on and off for years I felt like I learned new interesting information from this book.
April 19, 2014
Good, introductory bio of Frida Kahlo. It is a larger book with lots of color prints of her work, photographs of Frida, and a good timeline in the back. Recommended for someone interested in learning a little bit about this artist.
March 8, 2016
Frida Kahlo has such a distinctive style and did so many self-portraits, that I was recognizing her work without knowing anything about this artist. This book was perfect -- images of her paintings are used to show her development as an artist.
July 25, 2010
GReatness. if you are a Fre this.ida Kahlo fan you will lov
March 21, 2014
Awesome collection of pix & paintings. Easy to read.
March 25, 2015
Fairly cursory biography of Frida Kahlo, but with great reproductions of her paintings and some wonderful photographs.
Read
September 7, 2016Beautiful!
May 14, 2015
What a telling of Frida! A look into her life and work, as I had never seen! An amazing book!
March 12, 2016
A wonderful book if you're just wanting a basic review of Kahlo's life and works.
July 16, 2016
A great, thin book about a wonderful lady, that shows much of her work...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews