The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self Portrait.

London: Bloomsbury, 1995.. FIRST EDITION THUS. Large 8vo. pp.295. Publisher's original bright-red cloth gilt, marbled endpapers, in the unclipped dust-jacket. Profuesly illustrated with 338 illustrations, including 167 plates in full colour. An excellent copy, as new. Published here in its entirety for the first time, Frida Kahlo's extraordinary illustrated journal doments the last ten years of her turbulent life. This passionate, often surprising, intimate record, kept under lock and key for some forty years in Mexico, reveals many new dimensions in the complex persona of this remarkable Mexican artist. Covering the years 1944-54, the 170-page journal contains Frida's thoughts, poems, and dreams, and reflects her stormy relationship with her husband, Diego Rivera, Mexico's most famous artist. The seventy watercolour illustrations in the journal some lively sketches, several elegant self-portraits, others complete paintings offer insights into her creative process, and show her frequently using the journal to work out pictorial ideas for her canvases. The text entries, written in Frida's round, full script in brightly coloured inks, add an almost decorative quality, making the journal as captivating to look at as it is to read. Frida's childhood, her political sensibilities, and her obsession with Diego are all illuminated in witty phrases and haunting images. In spite of all that has been written already, Frida Kahlo's art and life continue to fascinate the world. This personal document, published in a full-colour facsimile edition, will add greatly to the understanding of her unique and powerful vision and her enormous courage in the face of more than thirty-five operations to correct injuries she had sustained in an accident at the age of eighteen. The facsimile is accompanied by an introduction by the world-renowned Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes and a complete translation of the diary's text. An essay on the place of the diary in Frida's work and in art history at large, as well as commentaries on the images, is provided by Sarah M. Lowe.