Tags: Art, artist, Clairefontaine, diary, frida, journal, notebook
Frida Khalo (1907-1954) was a self-taught Mexican painter best known for her self portraits in intense, vibrant colors. Her work has been celebrated in Mexico as representative of national and indigenous traditions and also by feminists for her uncompromising depiction of the female experience.
“Admirers of her explicitly autobiographical paintings have made her into something of an idol: Saint Frida of the Afflicted. Most have no trouble reciting the particulars of the painter’s life: her childhood bout with polio; the near-fatal bus accident at age 18; her tempestuous marriage to Mexican muralist Diego Rivera; her love affairs; her many surgeries–nearly 30 all told–and finally her death, a possible suicide, in 1954.” – Tai Moses, Metroactive.com
The book The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait by Carlos Fuentes includes 170 pages from Frida’s personal journal/sketchbook:
Reviewer “adore” wrote: “…an amazing combination of text and paintings. She writes random comments with little consideration of form. In fact, many of the things she writes are random lists of words, or letters to loves that are never sent, or even descriptions of fantastic events that never occur outside of her imagination. It’s like a huge and colorful experiment in free writing and unconscious expression.”
Clairefontaine is currently offering a series of notebooks with images depicting Frida Khalo. The Wirebound notebooks include lined 90g Clairefontaine paper and is available in 4 assorted designs and in 2 sizes. The A5 (5 3⁄4 x 8 1⁄4″) notebook includes 90 sheets, and the A4 (8 1⁄4 x 11 3⁄4″) includes 74 sheets. The Staplebound Notebooks include lined 90g Clairefontaine paper in 3 assorted designs and is available one size: (A5 5 3⁄4 x 8 1⁄4″) with 48 sheets.
All of the available cover designs can be viewed here.
Read more about Frida at the following links:
FKhalo.com (Official Site)
Frida Kahlo at Smithsonian.com
Diary Of A Mad Artist at Vanity Fair
The Life and Times of Frida Khalo at PBS.org
Frida Kahlo – A Self Portrait Of Suffering at Arty Factory
Frida’s Diary: Her Tortured Art Journal at Sketches and Jottings
The New York Botanical Garden will host a Frida Kahlo exhibition from May 16- November 1, 2015. http://www.nybg.org/frida/
They stock the Clairefontaine Frida Kahlo notebooks. They have already reordered and the exhibit hasn’t even started!