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lived and where Frida addressed most comal [traditional Mexican griddle].... of her letters (which were always One day (and 1 don't want to brag about stamped "For immediate delivery"), as the thousands and thousands of well as in the aviation library or the anecdotes I know about Frida) I was home of very close friends. painting a mural for the Military Unfortunately none of Aguirre's letters Aviation Library, which was then have been found, although from one of located on Balbuena Street. Frida was Frida's we deduce that he did write her: helping me... today it's nothing but dust, (August 19, 1935) a memory amidst the nostalgia of what I I kepí your letter like a treasure am When had to go to Much has been written about Frida —Your voice gave me the purest New York to talk with Rockefeller about Kahlo. Nevertheless, this volume of joy didn't know what to do- the mural he did, which was later previously unpublished letters, in her and 1 sat down to write this letter destroyed for reasons all of you know, own hand, helps reveal another of her which will be unable to tell you, Frida went with him. Scandalously facets. For Frida-followers this book is with my words, everything I beautiful Frida... I haven 't seen, heard a new delight. would like to say —everything you or read anything about . I Ignacio Aguirre was a novelist deserve for giving me so much! — knew her so well, I was so close to her in and engraver from Jalisco. From 1915 your beauty —your hands —you. her artistic work, her struggles and her (when he was only 15 years old) to I wish 1 could be so pretty for you! life, that I wouldn't want to change or 1917 he fought against Pancho Villa 1 wish I could give you all that upset the image I have retained of her. I as a member of the forces commanded which you have never had, and simply remain with the Frida I know, by Carranza. In 1920 he took up arms even so you wouldn 't know how who I looked at and listened to for again, in support of General Alvaro wonderful it is to be able to love many years. Obregón. From 1921 to 1929 he you. I will wait all the minutes Luis Mario Schneider's preface to worked in the Secretariat of until I can see you. Wait for me at Frida Kahlo & Ignacio Aguirre, Cartas Communications and the Office of the six fifteen on Wednesday —below, de una pasión provides the historical President of the Republic. in the big hallway of your house, context of this love affair and mentions At the same time he devoted because I think that 's easiest — the factors that may have begun and himself to art. He was one of the Call me tomorrow at six in the ended it. The book also includes founders of the League of afternoon; I just want to hear Kahlo's manuscript letters, together Revolutionary Writers and Artists in your voice, even if only for a with a typescript version of each one; 1933 and the People's Graphic moment. If you ca!! me, I will the images which María Esther Workshop in 1937. In 1940 he won gather many little flowers for you Velázquez Piña Aguirre gave the first prize in the Latin American and I will bring them to you on publishers, together with the letters; Engraving Exhibit at the World Fair in Wednesday, but if you don 't cal! and the full text of the lecture Ignacio New York, a city where he put on five me I will bring them to you Aguirre gave on his beloved Frida. exhibitions. He also showed his work anyway —so many that they could in Washington in 1942. make a garden on your chest — Marybel Toro Gayol. He was a friend of the photographer the color of humid earth. Managing Editor. Henri Cartier-Bresson, for whom he also The frogs are still singing for us posed as a model. A photo of him was —and our river is waiting —the Frida Kahlo: images even used for the cover of the catalogue chaste town is looking at the and Icons for the photography exhibition held at Great Bear constellation —and as New York's Museum of Modem Art for me —I love you. Frida Kahlo in 1987. While Ignacio Aguirre's letters to Sarah Lowe He painted several murals, and Frida Kahlo have not been found, the Universe Publishing the one he did in for the testimony of his love and admiration New York: 1991, 128 pp. Military Aviation Library —destroyed remains in the lecture he gave on her when the building was demolished- in 1986, four years before his death: Frida Kahlo: The Camera Seduced bore witness to his love affair with Frida is the event of each day, Elena Poniatowska and Carla (essays) Frida Kahlo. with birds and flowers, forget-me-nots, Stellweg Chatto & Windus Ltd. Their liaisons were held at Puente pelicans, marigolds, the moisture of the London: 1992, 125 pp. de Alvarado No. 45, where Aguirre garden and the aroma of a burning 66 Voices of Mexico /January • March, 1995

Frida Kahlo continues to occupy the and Surrealism. She weaves in and out refreshing contrast to Sarah Lowe's limelight as a choice subject for of "isms," focusing on elements which position as a U.S.-trained art historian. journalists, curators and academics. could place Frida into a tidy Her essay is written as if Frida were Sarah Lowel looks at Frida from an art classification. Yet Kahlo's still-lifes the one expressing who she is and historian's perspective. Her book don't classify easily. Lowe is forced to what she feels. Having personally includes a short introduction, a conclude that Frida's work reflects her known Kahlo, I have fmally come brief biographical overview, a mexicanidad, that is her identity as across a text that is more like the Frida chronology and two main chapters: part of the Mexican Renaissance of I knew. The text flows, chock full of 1) The Self-Portraits and the 1920's and 30's. irreverence and humor, without 2) Surrealism, "Primitivism" and the Fruit, flowers and vegetables making light of the painful reality of Still-Life Tradition. reminiscent of vendors' arrangements the artist's body. Poniatowska alludes The book is designed carefully, in Mexican open-air markets are (on p. 20) to the collection of with color plates accompanying the redefined in terms of Surrealist photographs presented in the book: text describing a particular work of concepts and feminist convictions. Look at my face, look at my eyes, art. In addition to beautiful color Odorless camelias become "sweet much is written there, much is plates of Kahlo's paintings, there are smelling" (p. 107), as if they were hidden from view. My real self is also illustrations of related figures of gardenias. In the description of in my painting. I hate pity. codices, "ex votos" and other images, "Unos cuantos piquetitos" (A Few Carla Stellweg complements which the author uses to describe Little Stab Wounds), a painting Poniatowska's text and Kahlo's Frida's work. reminiscent of a José Guadalupe images with a biographical essay, Posada engraving about a crime, again including interpretations. Self-portraits Lowe inserts her own feminism: She writes: Lowe presents a conscientious Unlike surrealist art, which At the age offive, in a photograph analysis of each of the plates glamorized misogyny and in whose taken by her father, Frida strikes included in the book, although she visual images women are a seductive pose, resting her does not explain her rationale for portrayed with a stylized, sanitized round face with its dimpled chin including or excluding work. Her elegance, Kahlo's painting serves on her chubby arm. detailed descriptions educate the as an explicit reminder of the Mischievously she looks out at reader's eyes to notice details. The concrete reality of daily violence the photographer. narrative flows from the in women's lives (p. 86). The same image could project a identification of a particular The extensive analysis defiant or bored Frida, depending on technique to the names of artists who accomplishes the author's goal of the conclusions one wants to draw have done similar work in other placing Kahlo within the framework about her. periods of history. The dates and of art history, although the chapter artists mentioned span centuries might well have been called "Why The subjective volee and continents. Frida Kahlo Was/Wasn't a Surrealist." There is an old Mexican saying: There is a concerted effort to The material on "still-lifes" goes "Nothing is true and nothing false. It interpret Frida's work and draw beyond the careful classification of the all depends on the color of the lens conclusions relating to her self-portraits. Lowe asserts one looks through." Lowe looks at relationship with Diego Rivera, interpretations repeatedly, even Frida through the lens of a non- whom she married twice, and the assuming —when describing the Mexican feminist art historian. medica] problems she endured. Detroit painting Store Window, which Poniatowska, a Mexican journalist includes a portrait of George and novelist, presents her Surrealism, "Primitivism" and the Washington— that "It must have interpretations by speaking out for Still-Life Tradition amused her [Frida] to think of this Frida. Carla Stellweg presents her Sarah Lowe's skill as an art historian aristrocratic-looking man as interpretations as a foreign art curator is evident in this discourse on Frida America's great revolutionary hero." and journalist who lived in Mexico for many years. Doctoral candidate at the City University of Images Stellweg invites the viewer to New York (CUNY), currently writing a The well-known Mexican journalist "penetrate the mask [Kahlo] thesis on Tina Modotti. Elena Poñiatowska provides a consciously designed, and to be Voces ofMeXiCo /January • March, 1995 67

emotionally moved by the ways in interpretations. She would probably Revolution and his wife, painter of which she shifted and changed to go out of her way to become more scandalous canvases. create her persona."' outrageously cryptic for "interpreting The book also reveals There are many wonderful scholars and journalists." Or she little-known anecdotes, such as the photographs of Frida taken by might get bored with it all as she did relation between Frida and Diego's professionals, novices, friends and with the monumental "old man," first wife, Guadalupe Marín (mother family members, among them Ansel Trotsky. of Guadalupe Rivera), who prepared Adams, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Lola the food for her ex-husband's Alvarez Bravo, Lucienne Bloch, Susannah Glusker wedding, since she knew which were Imogen Cunningham, Hector García, Doctoral candidate studying the the favorite dishes of the demanding Nickolas Muray, Bernard G. "Relationships among Intellectuals in Mexico Diego. The wedding ended with a Silberstein and Edward Weston. and the United States" at Union Instante. scandal a la mexicana. Stellweg's essay discusses the role of Famous personages passed each photographer in Frida's life and Frida's Fiestas. Recipes and through the dining room of the "Blue singles out Lucienne Bloch: Reminiscences of Life with House" more than once. Tina Modotti, Kahlo and Bloch enjoyed each Frida Kahlo Juan 0"Gorman and Trotsky, among other's company; they went to the Guadalupe Rivera and many others, enjoyed the famous movies, drew together, cracked Marie-Pierre Colle chiles rellenos, chiles en nogada, jokes, and sang off-color Mexican Ignacio Urquiza (photography) pozoles, enchiladas, pulques and songs. Bloch made a unique Spanish edition, Mexico City: tequilas. The cause for celebration series of photographs of Kahlo Promexa, 1994, 223 pp. mattered little —it could be anything showing off, having fun, (English version, New York: Pavilion from a political meeting to the Day of mimicking for the camera Books Limited, 1994, 224 pp. the Dead. expressing the fun-loving The Riveras' lives were dedicated daredevil side she usually hid Each time we open the trunk of to reviving Mexican traditions, and from photographers.3 memories of Frida Kahlo and Diego they carried this out in many ways as Who is Lucienne Bloch? The Rivera we find a reason not only to part of their daily lives, from their way captions document the backgrounds talk about them but to put out a new of dressing to how they celebrated of most of the photographers, but book about them. This time Diego's and, aboye all, what they ate. not Bloch, who is mentioned but daughter Guadalupe Rivera joins In a time when it was fashionable not identified as an artist who with Marie-Pierre Colle to show us for women to wear short hairstyles, created many murals of her the salt and pepper in these two with heavily made-up eyelids and own, together with her husband artists' lives: the gastronomy and mouths and straight knee-length Stephen Dimitroff. They learned the the parties. dresses, Frida Kahlo deliberately technique working with Diego Without being a novel, Frida's broke away with her original way of Rivera as assistants, apprentices and Fiestas maintains an intimate link dressing, using regional outfits from friends. Bloch's images are between characters and recipes. the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz as outstanding: Frida is alive, a real Rather than a simple book about the well as the Tehuantepec Isthmus. person, not an enigmatic, couple's favorite dishes, this volume Dressed in this special way, she made mysterious myth! shows some of the ways in which the rounds of the flower and fruit More than twenty-five books and Frida expressed her love for all stands in the Coyoacán market papers have been written about the things Mexican, for Diego, for her several times a week. "mythological Frida" since Hayden friends and —as she always said- Frida 's Fiesta was printed in Herrera's biography was published for life in general. August, the month the book begins ten years ago —most of them by Guadalupe Rivera lived with with a listing of the special dates the women. If Frida were alive today, I the couple and as a result, this book Riveras celebrated throughout the year, suspect, she would poke fun at the describes a loving and enthusiastic each with its own menu and recipes growing bibliography and plethora of Frida who was generous with her and a short story for dessert. support, even organizing parties so her university friends could meet Mónica Ching 2 Poniatowska and Stellweg, page 118. 3 Ibid., page 112. the famous painter of the Assistant Editor.