Product Description

Though often portrayed in scholarly literature as a "spontaneous" artist, Frida Kahlo worked in a quite deliberate manner, basing her paintings on diverse cultural and philosophical sources. Imaging Her Selves uncovers the unexplored visual and textual foundations of Kahlo's imagery, illustrating--through a detailed study of her diary, letters, library collection, and other material-- the complex multilayered meanings of the many selves she comprised. In dozens of self-portraits, Kahlo examined the conventional and unconventional roles with which she attempted to identify. Ankori's work offers an innovative interpretation of her art as a major contribution to the ongoing human quest for a fuller understanding of the meaning of self. Acknowledging her failure to conform to traditional female roles, such as that of wife and mother, Kahlo investigated alternative options. Her physical, metaphysical, social, and genealogical selves--including Lilith, La Llorona, La Malinche, the Crowned Nun, and the Hindu goddess Parvati-- are all on display in her art. Transcending typical biographical inquiries, Ankori has created a broader study of the way in which Kahlo's art both reflected and refracted her multifaceted identity.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #852470 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

About the Author
GANNIT ANKORI is a lecturer in the Department of Art History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has published extensively in the fields of Mexican, Palestinian, and Israeli art, as well as feminist cultural studies. Her articles have been printed in Hebrew, Arabic, French, German, and English.

Customer Reviews

About the paintings, not just her life.
Most of the books discuss the life of Frida Kahlo, and rarely mention the meaning behind the paintings. This is not a biography, so if you want to know about just her life I suggest you look for the bio by hayden herrera. I absolutely loved this book. For once, this discusses her paintings and not those of her husband. Frida's life structured her paintings, and though they are self portraits they also have other symbols, that are hardly mentioned. All the different aspects of Frida as a daughter, an artist, a political activist, a wife, a woman and other parts of her self are discussed making this an fascinating insight to her paintings.