Frida Kahlo Portraits of an icon

Motivated perhaps by Kahlo's recent rise to icon status via exhibitions, books, and a biographical film, this is an album of mostly posed, static, studio-like portraits of the artist by her professional photographer father, friends Manuel Alvarez Bravo and Lola Alvarez Bravo, Fritz Henle, lover Nickolas Muray, journalist Bernard Silberstein, Hector Garcia, Juan Guzman, and others. Fifty-seven of the 59 are from the collection of Spencer Throckmorton, gallerist of Throckmorton Fine Art, Inc. of NYC. (Is this a dealer's catalog?) The pictures range from age four (by her father) to Kahlo on her deathbed (by Lola Alvarez Bravo). They generally express Kahlo's strength and presence, and speak of her as "the great concealer," as she called herself. They are beautifully reproduced in this handsome production. The first of two brief texts by Hooks speaks to Kahlo's and to her paintings' relationships to photography (mostly her father's "somewhat rigid studio portraits"). A series of "remarkable" portraits by Julien Levy are referred to but not reproduced. The second text describes plainly what can be seen in the reproductions and threads well-known facts of Kahlo's life into the imagery. There are few revelations of Kahlo's storied life or work in text or image. ^BSumming Up: Optional. General readers. C. Chiarenza emeritus, University of Rochester

Kahlo, the enigmatic and mythologized Mexican surrealist, is once again at the center of the artistic gaze, although this time it is not her own. Hooks, a writer and art collector, offers what is perhaps the most exciting Kahlo book since Bulfinch's Frida Kahlo in 2001 by presenting the photographic collection of Spencer Throckmorton, a gallerist and specialist in Latin American photographs. Including over 100 photos of Kahlo, some of which have never been seen, Hooks provides two essays to accompany the works. The first highlights the importance of photography in Kahlo's life (her father was a photographer) and her art (many of her paintings are photographic in composition), while the second complements the photographs themselves, offering an extended and more detailed history of each. The black-and-white portraits of Kahlo (and some family members) are each given their own page free from catalog information and other distractions, which are reserved for the facing page. A stunning and unique addition to Kahlo and general art collections alike.-Rachel Collins, "Library Journal" (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.