Barnes & NobleFrida in America: The Creative Awakening of a Great Artist by Celia Stahr

Frida's American crucible

Frida in America: The Creative Awakening of a Great Artist In-depth, up close and personal, Dr. Celia Stahr’s new book Frida In America takes us on a journey that gives a clear and honest representation of the artist, her artwork and the times that shaped them both. Artists fill many roles, preserving and celebrating tradition, questioning assumptions and opposing cultural norms. Sometimes all this can be seen in a single artist. This was true of Frida Kahlo, a courageous, unique, powerfully talented artist whose importance in art is clearly established even while her position in its history is still hotly debated. Dr. Stahr’s careful scholarship is apparent; each page contains dozens of citations, the majority are primary sources which she has examined, collected and studied in person and in place while researching the book. The flow of the narrative is not interrupted by these references but sustained and made more interesting, as we can immediately grasp when, where and who gave us the information. There’s a liveliness to the writing. We are not simply told the date when Frida and Diego first came to the United States; we see, hear and smell the contemporary world of the San Francisco neighborhood of North Beach. From the first, we accompany Frida on her personal, political and artistic journey. The book doesn’t miss a thing, from the infamous Scottsboro Boys’ trial to the politics of Henry Ford. Yet it is no simple catalog but a live and vibrant retelling. For example, Dr. Stahr, accompanied by her young daughter, undertook the very same train trip that Frida made from Detroit to see her dying mother, seeing the landscape, enduring the endless hours, and observing the cultural shift between Texas and Mexico as Frida experienced it. In placing us right inside Frida’s own world, Stahr is an exact and accurate narrator of American political resistance, thus providing the context which aroused Frida’s passionate fight against racial injustice. The book is organized around one central work of art in each chapter, a very sound and innovative architecture that allows us to understand the environment, the personal aspects, the positive influences and antagonistic factors, and the personalities that shaped Frida’s American experience. When Dr. Stahr engages us in her detailed, thoughtful and beautifully explained readings of these paintings, every one of the elements that Frida has placed in her work is revealed. With this new book, she has made a significant contribution to our understanding of both the work and life of this remarkable and powerful artist.