Nez Riaz

Jonathan Weinberg
Queer Presence in American Art
December 4, y

Detailing Frida
FRIDA: A Biography of Frida Kahlo is a careful and detailed retelling of the life of Frida
Kahlo. Though it is composed by Hayden Herrera, the usage of source material from Frida
Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and both of their family and friends creates a scene where the author seems
nearly uninvolved. Real letters to and from Frida Kahlo are used as well as accounts of events by
people who knew and loved Frida, making the book read like a documentary. This is a long book
about a short life, but is highly descriptive and uses quotes from Frida herself as commentary on
her own life. Several accounts of each event in her life are noted and described, making every
aspect of Fridas life rich in detail and fully immersive.
Much of Fridaa life, as Herrera covered, was occupied by Diego Rivera and not only
their highly passionate relationship but the affairs both he and she experienced outside their
relationship. Fridas inspiration, career, and personal life are all tied tightly to Rivera all
throughout her artistic life. Both Kahlo and Riveras sex lives, with and without each other, are
covered extensively. Kahlos work was influenced by whoever she was sleeping with as well as
whoever Rivera was sleeping with. As Herrera mentioned, this is clear especially in A Few Small
Nips (1935), which not only articulates Kahlos feelings towards Rivera sleeping with her sister
but also provides a context for how long Cristina Kahlo was sleeping with her sisters husband.
Like this piece, Herrera elaborates on how much of Frida Kahlos work further gives insight to
Kahlos life as a whole narrative.

Herrera covers Fridas blatant bisexuality in relation to Rivera as well. She describes
Diego Rivera as being proud and even encouraging of Fridas sexuality and relationships with
women. And Frida herself is also described as having no shame regarding her sexual
tendencies, and is detailed to opening discussing the differences between making love to a
woman versus a man. Like the majority of the events in her life, Fridas attraction to women is
not excluded from being present in her work. Herrera mentions Two Nudes in a Forest (1939)
and What the Water Gave Me (1938) as examples of homosexuality in Fridas work portrayed by
an unspecific dark-skinned woman and a light-skinned that bears a resemblance to Frida. Fridas
homosexuality is also discussed in the same vein as her deep investment in autoeroticism. It is
made very clear through her extensive self portraiture that Fridas most passionate love affair
was with herself. Kahlo highlights her more masculine physical qualities in her facial hair and
bone structure while still bringing focus to her femininity in her dress, hair, and features to let her
masculine self and her feminine self both merge as well as play off of each other.
Herrera also mentions that after her accident, Kahlo physically had an easier time having
sex with women than men, despite most of her relationship being with men. Kahlo describes her
accident, specifically the handrail penetrating her and emerging out of her vagina, as the loss of
her virginity and therefore the embarkment of her sexual self. Kahlos accident was an act of
sexual violence, making Kahlos sexuality a long singular fight of her internal libido versus her
physical limitations.
Herrera provides a narrative context for the majority of Kahlos more well known works
in a very smooth way. Since Frida Kahlos work is so directly connected to the events in her life,
it only makes sense to introduce pieces as the events each piece was inspired by occurs. The
pieces Kahlo makes are usually in synch with her life at the moment they are made, making the

inclusion of them in Kahlos chronological timeline easy. The only interruption in this format is
the actual images included in the book are separate and must be referred to in a way that breaks
the flow of reading. However, since the photos provided are in color, it is clear that this is the
only way to keep the integrity of the image.
Herrera sprinkles the book with full descriptions of certain paintings in addition to the
pictures, highlighting significant elements in the piece and relating them back to whatever events
are prevalent in Kahlos life at the time of the paintings birth. Herrera does an excellent job
providing context for the piece without imposing a specific interpretation, letting the reader come
to their own conclusions while still putting Kahlos work directly into her personal narrative.