Finding Frida Kahlo

Finding Frida Kahlo Newly Discovered Diaries, Letters, Recipes, Notes, Sketches, Stuffed birds, and Other Keepsakes from the Artist’s Personal Archive

Barbara Levine with Stephen Jaycox

San Miguel de Allende en San Miguel de Allende

Contents ncountering Frida Kahlo E An Interview with Carlos and Leticia Noyola An Unexpected Archive in Five Cases

7 25 39

40

a suitcase

54

a b ox

102

a large wooden chest

194

an olinalá chest

204

a m e ta l t r u n k

Scrapbook [ pa g e 4 6 ] 10 Self-Portraits [ pa g e 6 8 ]

10 Airmail Letters, Personal Archive of Frida K [ pa g e 8 0]

Diary [ pa g e 1 4 1 ]

Folder of Menus [ pa g e 2 1 6 ]

Box Containing Hummingbirds & Letter [ pa g e 180]

Notebook of Recipes [ pa g e 2 2 4 ]

Birds [ pa g e 242]

Índice

7 25 39

Un Encuentro con Frida Kahlo Una Entrevista con Carlos y Leticia Noyola Un Archivo Inesperado en Cinco Maletas

40

u n a m a l e ta

54

una caja

102

baúl grande de madera

194

baúl de olinalá

204

b a ú l m e ta l i c o

Álbum de Recortes [ pa g e 4 6 ] 10 Autorretratos [ pa g e 6 8 ]

10 Cartas por Correo Aéro, Archivo Personal de Frida K [ pa g e 80]

Diario [ pa g e 1 4 1 ]

Carpeta de Menús [ pa g e 2 1 6 ]

Una Caja Contiene Colibres y Una Carta [ pa g e 180]

Cuaderno de Recetas [ pa g e 2 2 4 ]

Pájaros [ pa g e 242]

Barbara Levine:

i h av e l o n g b e e n a c o l l e c t o r .

I f you have read my books , S n a p s h o t C hr o n i c l e s and Aro u n d t he W or ld, you know of my passion for collecting anonymous photo albums.

It amazes me that such things—which open a window into someone’s life—are so easily found and so casually acquired.

But my collecting interests are more wide-ranging than photo albums and extend to things that people have saved over generations to mark time, memor y, and to tell their stor y. People collect their memories and archive their artifacts by arranging remnants in albums, scrapbooks, showboxes, and suitcases, often kept in storage.

Encountering Frida Kahlo Un encuentro con Frida Kahlo

he

sido

c o l e c c i o n i s ta

por

mucho

tiempo.

Si has

leído mis libros, Snapshot Chronicles y Around the World, sabes de mi pasión por coleccionar álbumes de fotos anónimas. Me asombra que tales cosas- que abren una ventana a la vida de alguien- se encuentran tan fácilmente y se obtienen tan casualmente. Pero mis intereses de coleccionista son de una gama mas amplia que álbumes de fotos y se extiende a cosas que la gente ha guardado por generaciones para marcar el tiempo, los recuerdos y para contar su historia. La gente colecciona sus recuerdos y archivan sus artefactos, arreglando sus remanentes en álbumes, álbumes de recortes, cajas de zapatos y maletas, comúnmente guardados en una bodega.

un encuentro con frida kahlo

encountering frida kahlo

7

To look at the beauty of the flower, is to deny the life that the ugly root gives it.

234

finding frida kahlo

encontranado a frida kahlo

Dear Juan yesterday you left me thinking for a long time about what you said to me “That despite not having my legs well I don’t need them to be free and then I thought: WHAT DO I NEED LEGS FOR WHEN I HAVE WINGS TO FLY WITH.

Frida K.

un encuentro con frida kahlo

encountering frida kahlo

235

On Mango Salad 6 green mangoes ½ onion juice of 5 large lemons 2 tablespoons powdered chile pequín 1 head of lettuce ½ cup olive oil 1 tablespoon curry powder F.K.

Sea Bass with 2 Chiles 6 sea bass filets 2 [...] chiles 4 pasilla chiles 4 garlic cloves 4 tablespoons olive oil 1 sprig cilantro 2 lemons in slices 6 lettuce leaves ½ onion sliced 1 sliced tomato

Chile de Arbol Pepper Salsa 5 tamales [...] chile de arbol pepper salsa 5 garlic cloves ¼ onion 1 tablespoon salt 5 sprigs cilantro F.K. All from the tables of Coyoacan.

Frida K.

Plants and more plants From the Meals of Coyoacan Pork Loin a la Frida 2 kilos pork loin or leg in one

piece 200 grams chopped bacon [...]

1 tspn clove ½ tspn marjoram 2 twigs rosemary 1 bay leaf 2 liters vinegar 2 cups white wine ½ cup sugar 1 orange 1 lemon Things from the palate in the 18th century in the convents Frida K.

226

finding frida kahlo

encontranado a frida kahlo

uín Quail with Rose Petals 12 quails ¹/3 cup olive oil ¹/3 cup white wine 1 halved onion 2 bay leaves ¼ pepper ¼ teaspoon thyme 12 slices bread ¼ cup oil 1 cup rose petals f. k.

The Christmas Stew in Coyoacan Pickled Fish 1 kilo dry fish 6 ancho chiles 100 grams almonds 1 tablespoon vinegar ½ tablespoon cinnamon 1 ground clove 6 long chiles 18 olives Recipe of Frida K. Bean Tamales ½ kilo corn flour 2 cups broth ½ kilo lard 100 corn leaves 200 grams maileca 1 medium onion 4 garlic cloves ½ kilo black beans 4 avocado leaves 4 pasilla chiles

Dry Codfish in Tomatoes and Olives ½ kilo salt cod ½ cup olive oil 1 cup chopped onion 5 cloves garlic ½ kilo tomatoes 100 grams olives 1 tablespoon pepper 25 grams grapes 50 grams almonds 6 serrano chiles in vinegar 3 tablespoons chopped parsley Frida K.

Frida K.

un encuentro con frida kahlo

encountering frida kahlo

227

I never have anything serious for you You don’t believe me at all what are you going to do without me? what am I going to do without you?

Frida Kahlo 1940

What do I want feet for If I have wings to fly

un encuentro con frida kahlo

encountering frida kahlo

59

Finding Frida Kahlo

by Barbara Levine with Stephen Jaycox

“I’m going to see the Frida K ahlos.”

“No way!” It seemed inconceivable to former San Francisco Museum of Modern Art curator Barbara Levine that after decades of exhibitions, auctions, books, and movies, Frida K ahlo’s artwork could still be found outside of a museum or held in a private collection. “Well, if you don’t believe me just come along,” replied her new acquaintance. Levine, having recently relocated to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, in search of challenging new experiences, could not resist and was soon en route to a shop called L a Buhardilla Antiquarios (The Attic Antiques) in a converted textile factor y. Down an arched stone corridor in a small back room sat two wooden chests, a metal trunk, a wooden box, and a battered old suitcase. On the lid of suitcase was the name “Sra. KAHLO DE RIVERA.” The shop owners opened the five cases to reveal a jumble of objects including paintings, drawings, keepsake boxes, annotated books, clothing, a diar y, and other assorted ephemera. Levine picked up one of ten airmail letters and read the inscription: “personal archive of Frida K. and personal archive of my private life.” As a passionate collector of vintage scrapbooks and photo albums, Levine understood intuitively that she had to preser ve a visual record of the archive before it was pulled apart, sorted by type, and sold.

Finding Frida Kahlo presents, for the first time in print, an astonishing lost archive of one of the twentieth centur y’s most revered artists. Hidden from view for over half a centur y, this richly illustrated, intimate portrait overflows with fascinating details about K ahlo’s romances, friendships, and business affairs during a three-decade period, beginning in the 1920s when she was a teenager until just before she died in 1954. Full of ardent desires, seething fur y, and outrageous humor, Finding Frida Kahlo is a rare glimpse into her exuberant and troubled existence: “A vivid diar y entr y records her sexual encounter with a woman named Doroti; a painted box contains eleven stuffed hummingbirds, concealed beneath a letter in which she laments of her discover y that her husband, Diego Rivera, had been monstrously dissecting ‘these beautiful creatures’ to extract an aphrodisiac; pages in a French medical book illustrating an amputation technique contain K ahlo’s writing in the margin describing the pain she suffered from the amputation of her right leg; a letter to a friend expresses her loneliness, and a simple request for coconut candies. . . Frida K ahlo never wrote an autobiography...instead, she left behind a much more complex material universe.” Finding Frida Kahlo offers scholars and fans alike an opportunity to examine Frida K ahlo’s secret world first hand and draw their own conclusions about how she imagined her place in it.

PUBLISHED BY Princeton Architectural Press November 2009 8.5 X 11 in / 22 X 28 cm 256 pp / 250 color Hardcover 978-1-56898-830-6 $50.00 / £32.00 / CDN $65.00

CONTACT INFORMATION PUBLICITY K atharine Myers (212) 995-9620 x216 katharine@papress.com

SALES Nettie Aljian (212) 995-9620 x208 nettie@papress.com

Princeton Architectural Press 37 East 7th Street New York, NY 10003 www.papress.com 55000

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