Rating: 
Summary: Ode to the Braulein
Review: A detailed paean to the biggest gay icon since they built that tall, narrow tower at the tip of Provincetown. An excellent narrative marred only by an ironic lack of illustrations. This made it slow going at storytime for my daughter Priscilla, who at four is already a big Kahlo fan (an eerie development that would have been significantly more worrying had it arisen in her twin brother). She claims to be drawn to Kahlo solely by her artwork. However her mother and I suspect an unvoiced sympathy for Kahlo's leftist politics as well - a suspicion that deepened during the recent dock workers' strike on the West Coast, which Priscilla stridently supported.
Rating: 
Summary: Awesome Book !!
Review: A very definitive and excellent book about "Frida". I couldn't
put it down. Very thorough account of her life.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful reading even if you aren't a huge Kahlo fan
Review: Everyone has got to read this excellent book at least once in their lives. This is one of the most in-depth, well-researched biographies on Frida Kahlo I've ever read. The story of this courageous, spirited, highly talented woman is truly inspiring, and the cultural and historical details alone are worth a look.
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Summary: Oh man, what a complex and fascinating woman
Review: Frida Kahlo was a 'personality' in the truest and strongest sense of the word. She lived for less than 50 years (1907-1954) but cast a wide swath through the artistic, political, historical, and revolutionary times of her brief era. Born of German/Mexican heritage in Mexico City, her early years were influenced by the Mexican revolution and polio. Her life was changed forever when she was severely injured in a trolley car accident: a steel handrail pierced her body, and she was broken in every sense of the world. During her long convalescence, she lay on her back and began to paint self-portraits. Eventually, she joined the Communist party, was introduced to Diego Rivera - and thus began the secone life-changing experience. Rivera, 41yo and already famous, captivated her - and was simultaneously captivated. They soon married, and in spite of probably one of the most tumultuous relationships within the history of artistic and volatile couples, they remained devoted to each other (in their own fashion) till Kahlo's premature death.
Life wasn't perfect for Frida Kahlo, but no one can say she didn't give it her best shot.
Rating:
Summary: Complete and Complex Like Frida
Review: Hayden Herrera has written an excellent portrait of the great artist Frida Kahlo, complete in thought and tender in describing a woman well lived.Frida Kahlo is the ultimate survivor and represents women for their strength, tenderness, fierceness and suffering compassion. She lived during a time when women had few rights, especially Mexican women, she faced the dreadfulness of the Mexican Revolution in her early years, a bout with polio, a horrible bus accident that attempted to cripple her for life, an often unfaithful husband, criticism of her dreams, activism, accused Communism and many exciting adventures in life. She lived a true artistic life and her paintings represent the complicated nature of her inner soul. She loved hard and fought often, for her rights, her dreams and her man. While bed-ridden and suffering in the severest of agony she taught herself to paint, her body encased in a huge white cast, she painted to survive and reached the other end with a unique perspective on art. Her life and home were surrounded with color, a rainbow that never needed the promise of something golden at the end. She danced her own rhythm and never stopped walking her own path. This is a woman to be admired! Herrera does an excellent job as the biographer of this phenomenally complicated woman. Her research is thorough and her suggestions entirely believable. You will be transported back in time into the life of a controversial woman who deserves every ounce of recognition that Herrera has given us.
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Summary: FRIDA KAHLO IS INSPIRATIONAL
Review: Hayden Herrera's BIOGRAPHY OF FRIDA KAHLO is one of the very best books on women artists of all times. When I first found this seminal biography, I was a young mother in Oregon painting alone in a 5 x 8' studio with two toddler sons at my feet in the early '80s. Frida's story is inspirational. Her courage in painting about what really mattered has sustained me through years when my own art was too powerful for the market. Frida channeled lots of pain and lust for life into her art. Although she did not attain the recognition her husband Diego Rivera did during her lifetime, today people recognize Kahlo's genius as an artist. I loved the way Frida kept painting until the end despite her pain, even from her bed, like Matisse did in his later years. When the doctor wouldn't let Frida go to her first exhibit in her own country because of failing health, she had them wheel her into the exhibition triumphantly perched on her now famous bed. No matter how much pain Frida was in, she always looked her best. I've often thought of her when I was tempted to rush out of the house with paint splattered jeans and t-shirt. Frida's passion for life and art are inspirational. A highly recommended biography for anyone interested in women, art and stories about courageous extraordinary people.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book about Frida
Review: I liked this book alot. It gave great details about her life from the begining to end. I thought that it got a little wordy sometimes, like the author was trying to prove how much she knew. But other than that it was an excellent book.
Rating:
Summary: Inspired writing
Review: I loved this biography principally because the author seemed very passionate AND knowledgeable about the topic. Frida was a one-of-a-kind artist and person and this is a humane account of her work, her relationships and her beliefs. One reviewer found the diary entries and letters tedious- I found their inclusion necessary to uncovering the psychology of an artist. I loved that Herrera combines scholasticism with compassion. This is a necessary addition to your collection if Frida is an artist you respect.
Rating:
Summary: Inspired writing
Review: I loved this biography principally because the author seemed very passionate AND knowledgeable about the topic. Frida was a one-of-a-kind artist and person and this is a humane account of her work, her relationships and her beliefs. One reviewer found the diary entries and letters tedious- I found their inclusion necessary to uncovering the psychology of an artist. I loved that Herrera combines scholasticism with compassion. This is a necessary addition to your collection if Frida is an artist you respect.
Rating:
Summary: Top Kahlo book out there
Review: If you are a Frida Kahlo or Diego Rivera fan (as I am) that is... then this book is your bible -- it is a well-organized orchestration of dates, facts, and photographs about the Mexican artist gods. Some of the moments in the book are intimate, while others are possibly exagerations of the artists' famous life. With a movie in the works (Selma Hayek plays Frida - that is after Laura San Giacomo, Madonna and Jennifer Lopez all had the part, and were dropped because Fridomexicans complained about the lack of Mexicanity in the actresses chosen to portrait their newly-found goddess), Kahlo is sure to solidify her position as the top-of-the-art-food-chain Latin American artist of the century (Georgia O'Keefe considered her the best female artist of the 20th century) and make her iconic face even more famous. Kahlo deserves this position because she painted honestly and brutally. She painted her memorable Jewish-Austrian-Spanish-Mexican face, single eyebrow and slim moustache in stark honesty; she had many lovers of both sexes (when such a course of sex exploits was practically unknown); she grabbed her Mexicanity with a fierce pride and ferocity that would not be in vogue until decades after her death (Kahlo was born in 1907 and died in 1954) and yet during her life she was just the wife of a very famous Mexican muralist and a champagne Communist who partied with the Fords and Rockefellers while marching with the workers down the wide avenues of Mexico City. It is thus ironic that it is Kahlo, whose astonishing life and unique paintings are now the subject of lawsuits between governments and collectors, has taken the limelight from her talented womanizer husband and is rightfully considered one of the best artists of the 20th century, period. This is THE BOOK about her.
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