ANDREA KETTENMANN
u003cpu003eThe arresting pictures of Frida Kahlo (1907-54) were in many ways expressions of trauma. Through a near-fatal road accident at the age of 18, failing health, a turbulent marriage, miscarriage and childlessness, she transformed the afflictions into revolutionary art.u003c/pu003eu003cpu003eIn literal or metaphorical self-portraiture, Kahlo looks out at the viewer with an audacious glare, rejecting her destiny as a passive victim and rather intertwining expressions of her experience into a hybrid real-surreal language of living: hair, roots, veins, vines, tendrils and fallopian tubes. Many of her works also explore the Communist political ideals which Kahlo shared with her husband Diego Rivera. The artist described her paintings as "the most sincere and real thing that I could do in order to express what I felt inside and outside of myself."u003c/pu003eu003cpu003eThis book introduces the rich body of Kahlo's work to explore her unremitting determination as an artist, and her significance as a painter, feminist icon, and a pioneer of Latin American culture.u003c/pu003eu003cpu003eu003c/pu003eu003cpu003eAbout the seriesu003c/pu003eu003cpu003eBorn back in 1985, the Basic Art Series has evolved into the best-selling art book collection ever published. Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Art series features: u003c/pu003eu003cpu003ea detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importanceu003c/pu003eu003cpu003ea concise biographyu003c/pu003eu003cpu003eapproximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captionsu003c/pu003e
