Imaging Her Selves: Frida Kahlo's Poetics of Identity and Fragmentation [Hardcover]

Gannit Ankori (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0313315655 | ISBN-13: 978-0313315657 | Publication Date: January 30, 2002

Though often portrayed in scholarly literature as a "spontaneous" artist, Frida Kahlo worked in a quite deliberate manner, basing her paintings on diverse cultural and philosophical sources. Imaging Her Selves uncovers the unexplored visual and textual foundations of Kahlo's imagery, illustrating--through a detailed study of her diary, letters, library collection, and other material-- the complex multilayered meanings of the many selves she comprised. In dozens of self-portraits, Kahlo examined the conventional and unconventional roles with which she attempted to identify. Ankori's work offers an innovative interpretation of her art as a major contribution to the ongoing human quest for a fuller understanding of the meaning of self. Acknowledging her failure to conform to traditional female roles, such as that of wife and mother, Kahlo investigated alternative options. Her physical, metaphysical, social, and genealogical selves--including Lilith, La Llorona, La Malinche, the Crowned Nun, and the Hindu goddess Parvati-- are all on display in her art. Transcending typical biographical inquiries, Ankori has created a broader study of the way in which Kahlo's art both reflected and refracted her multifaceted identity.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

GANNIT ANKORI is a lecturer in the Department of Art History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has published extensively in the fields of Mexican, Palestinian, and Israeli art, as well as feminist cultural studies. Her articles have been printed in Hebrew, Arabic, French, German, and English.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Greenwood Press (January 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0313315655
• ISBN-13: 978-0313315657
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #175,934 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars About the paintings, not just her life., October 17, 2002

By 

Ivonne M (Ca. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Imaging Her Selves: Frida Kahlo's Poetics of Identity and Fragmentation (Hardcover)

Most of the books discuss the life of Frida Kahlo, and rarely mention the meaning behind the paintings. This is not a biography, so if you want to know about just her life I suggest you look for the bio by hayden herrera. I absolutely loved this book. For once, this discusses her paintings and not those of her husband. Frida's life structured her paintings, and though they are self portraits they also have other symbols, that are hardly mentioned. All the different aspects of Frida as a daughter, an artist, a political activist, a wife, a woman and other parts of her self are discussed making this an fascinating insight to her paintings.