Frida Kahlo: The Camera Seduced
The mythologizing of Kahlo continues with this compendium of photographic portraits of the Mexican painter, accompanied by a "memoir" by Poniatowska attempting to write as if she were Kahlo. The resulting essay is a singularly turgid bit of writing, surrounded by photos that have nearly all appeared in one of several recent biographies. Apparently striving to maintain the potency of the isolated image, the editors have gathered together detailed captions and photo credits in the book's final pages, forcing the curious reader to undertake a great deal of page-flipping to learn more about individual images. Kahlo was a person of transcendent beauty to the day she died, and without the artful photographs, the book would be bereft of any compelling content. While this endeavor is little more than a hiccup within a continuum of more well-rounded and intellectually rigorous titles on Kahlo, one can't help hoping that it does not represent a new direction in art historical study. Sara Lowe's Frida Kahlo ( LJ 5/15/92) is the preferred title.- Douglas F. Smith, Oakland P.L., Cal.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.