Portraits of the artist

A collection of interviews with the great Frida Kahlo captures the many facets of her spontaneous, luminous creativity

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) was one of Mexico’s greatest painters but her fame extends far beyond the country that was her home. She is particularly loved by women, LGBTQ people, and those with disabilities who take strength not only from her art but also her life story. There is a plethora of writing about Kahlo, and it continues to grow every year. The most recent addition is a wonderful book titled Frida Kahlo: The Last Interview and Other Conversations.

This slim volume compiles seven of Kahlo’s interviews to the press between 1933 and 1954. They were first published in The Detroit News, Vogue, The New Yorker and Novedades: México en la Cultura. Each one illuminates some aspect of her personality, her desires, her creative life, and her relationship with Mexican muralist Diego Rivera — a man who was her mentor, comrade and husband. Reading these interviews one after another is an intensely stimulating experience.

The book stands out for its balance between ease and depth, making itself attractive to the novice and meaningful to the connoisseur. The interviews are preceded by a captivating introduction written by American critic and art historian Hayden Herrera. Her doctoral dissertation about Kahlo became her first book, which was titled Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo (1983) and subsequently adapted into a film titled Frida (2002) directed by Julie Taymor, with actor Salma Hayek playing Kahlo.

Herrera writes, “[Kahlo’s] way of talking was as lively and direct as her painting. Similarly, when she spoke, she said whatever came into her head without trying to edit her thoughts and words. Kahlo could be hilarious, she could be ribald, and she could swear like a mariachi. She sometimes expressed herself with honesty that shocked. Her paintings, too, can be shocking.” 

The interviews in this book give a clear indication of the effect Kahlo had on the people who met and wrote about her. Instead of following a question-and-answer format, they are written in the form of first-person accounts by the interviewers. That gives each writer an opportunity to weave in personal observations about Kahlo, and own up to the feelings she evoked in them during their interaction. Some interviewers are kind and appreciative; others are condescending and dismissive.

Herrera’s introduction prepares the reader to delve into this material with enough background knowledge, and gradually cultivate an appreciation for her artistic gifts. She offers biographical details about Kahlo’s childhood, adolescence and adulthood. It is important to know this information because “her art and life are so intimately linked that her work has been called an autobiography in paint”. All the years that Herrera has spent in researching Kahlo have come to fruition in this essay.

Frida Kahlo: The Last Interview and Other Conversations

Introduction: Hayden Herrera

Publisher: Melville House

Price: $13.29; Pages: 96

Kahlo’s mother was “a Mexican of mixed Indian and Spanish descent”, while her father was a German who migrated to Mexico in the late 19th century. At the age of seven, Kahlo was struck by polio, and was isolated in her room for many months. According to Herrera, “this solitude and confinement led to an expansion of her world through fantasy”. Her mother invented an easel that would allow her to paint lying down. Oil on tin was her favourite medium.

At 18, she was in a terrible accident. “The bus split in half and many passengers were killed or injured, among them Frida, whose groin was pierced by a metal handrail,” writes Herrera. The doctors doubted her chances of survival. “Her spine was broken in three places, two ribs and her collarbone were broken, her right leg had 11 fractures, and her right foot was crushed,” adds Herrera. Kahlo’s self-portraits capture the pain that was to become a constant fixture.

She had 30 surgical operations in two decades. If that was not enough, her marriage brought its own share of hurt and sadness. Her father did not want her to marry Rivera because she was 22 when he was 41. However, he gave in when he realised that Rivera would be able to take care of Kahlo’s medical bills. In one of the interviews, Kahlo calls Rivera one of the two big accidents in her life. His philandering ways left her frustrated. She could never claim that he belonged to her.

The interview by Florence Davies, included in this book, makes it clear that Kahlo’s genius was often eclipsed by her husband’s stature in the art world. Davies has the temerity to claim that Kahlo “paints only because time hangs heavily upon her hands while her husband is at work in the court”. Kahlo is the one to have the last laugh. She says, “I didn’t study with Diego. I didn’t study with anyone. I just started to paint…he does pretty well for a little boy, but it is I who am the big artist.”

The interviews by Bertram D Wolfe and Paul Westheim do a much better job of providing fine insights into Kahlo’s work. Though surrealist painters claimed that Kahlo was a surrealist, she did not align herself with any specific school or tradition. Her subject matter was her own life, and her artistic style that blurred the boundaries between reality and fantasy drew inspiration from Mexican folk culture.

The interview with Raquel Tibol shows Kahlo’s experience with Catholicism — thanks to her mother — and communism — thanks to Rivera — shaped her life in important ways. However, the book does not give lengthy interpretations of specific paintings because that is not the purpose of this collection. It gives the reader an opportunity to ponder over the meanings of symbols, and how Kahlo used them to create a visual language that was most faithful to her inner life.