All 152 of the paintings completed by Frida Kahlo between 1924 and 1954 have been compiled in a new book launched in Mexico City on Monday.
Published by German art book publisher Taschen, Frida Kahlo: The Complete Paintings doesn’t just feature all of the renowned Mexican artist’s best known and lesser known works but also provides painstaking detail about them, the context in which they were made and their ownership history.
Available in English, Spanish, German and French, the 624-page tome also includes interviews, newspaper articles, photographs, notes, diary pages and letters handwritten by Kahlo, who was born in Coyoacán, Mexico City, in 1907 and died in the same district in 1954.
“It’s the most complete and detailed study that has been done about the origin and fate of the 152 paintings Frida Kahlo made,” said art historian Luis-Martín Lozano, the book’s editor and one of its three co-authors.
However, it doesn’t aim to be an exhaustive account of her artwork, he told the newspaper Milenio at the launch of the book at La Casa Azul (The Blue House), Kahlo’s former home that is now a museum.
“What we try to do is summarize what we know about Frida Kahlo,” Lozano said.
In an interview with the BBC, he said that the book provides information about some Kahlo paintings that “amazingly” have never been written about previously.
In turn, the United Kingdom’s national broadcaster said the book “offers for the first time a comprehensive survey of her entire oeuvre.”
Co-written by Lozano and the art historians Andrea Kettenman and Marina Vázquez Ramos, Frida Kahlo: The Complete Paintings is available on Taschen’s website for US $200.
