The year 1939 was a difficult one for Frida Kahlo. Her unfaithful husband, Diego Rivera, publicly announced that he planned to divorce her, while at the same time having an affair with her younger sister, Cristina. Frida had, until the previous year, been little more than Diego’s wife, but an exhibition at the Julien Levy in NYC brought her attention outside of Mexico. Diego encouraged her to display her art in Paris, to gain her greater exposure in the modern art capital of the world but also so he could more freely continue his relationship with Cristina. That year André Breton, the father of surrealism, and his wife Jacqueline Lamba spent several months with Frida and Diego in their famed Casa Azul, and since Breton considered Frida as the embodiment of surrealism itself he invited Frida to stay with them while he made preparations to have her work displayed there. (Of note, Frida rejected the surrealist label, and found Breton and most of the surrealists to be pompous asses.)

Fascism was progressively taking over western Europe in early 1939, as the Republicans were about to lose power to the Francisco Franco and the Nationalists, aided by fascist regimes in Germany, Italy and Portugal, Czechoslovakia and Poland would soon fall to Hitler, and the Nazis were in the process of invading France, which was deeply upsetting to Frida and those closest to her.

Frida was also in her constant pain, due mainly to the bus-trolley accident in 1926 that nearly claimed her life and horribly pierced her body. She did consult multiple specialists in New York and Paris and underwent multiple operations, without much improvement.

Marc Petitjean, the author of this book, and the son of Michel Petitjean, one of Frida’s lovers, and this relationship provides an often interesting but somewhat uneven account of an important period in Frida Kahlo’s life. Frida’s painting The Heart was a gift to Michel, and one that was constantly on view in the Petitjean home throughout Marc’s life. In it, Frida portrays a dress from her youth, an image of her with a rod piercing her heart, presumably the one from the trolley that impaled her, but that rod went through her pelvis, and a traditional dress that helped to hide the misshaped legs that resulted from an episode of paralytic polio she suffered at the age of six.

Marc, Michel’s father, was approached by a researcher in Mexico who wanted to review whatever letters and other communication that Michel had about his father, and since Marc was interested in Michel, and his relationship to Frida, he readily agreed. This book is a compilation of what information he obtained from different sources in Paris and France, along with information that Oscar shared with him. Michel’s life is far more banal than Frida’s, and Marc puts his father on a lofty pedestal, especially in comparison to Breton and the other surrealists, and there seem to be occasional embellishments and likely inaccuracies, particularly when he portrays the lovers engaged in an intimate conversation, when the author states earlier in the book that his father spoke little useful English and Frida spoke hardly any French.

I would recommend "The Heart: Frida Kahlo in Paris" to anyone who wishes to learn more about this great artist’s life in detail, but I would take it with a large pinch of salt, and look for other sources about the time she spent in Paris that year to the casual reader. ( )

Many years ago I became fascinated with the artist, Frida Kahlo and since then have read many books about this unique artist. This one has an unusual focus, starting with the discovery by the author, that is father had a short lived affair with the artist. Her painting, The heart, had been hung on the wall of his home since he was a child. He knew that the painting had been given to his father by the artist, but not the circumstance ps behind the gift. After his father's death and a random phone call, he set out to learn more.

The book takes us back in time to the 1930s and Frida's arrival in Paris for the first exhibition of her work. It was also a time of personal sadness for her, and a chance to get away. The surrealist movement embraced her and the book is chock full of the notables of this movement, Picasso, his muse Dora Maar, Man Ray and many others. Also the story of how the authors father met and became involved with Frida.

A good look at the artist, but also the art movement and historical happenings at the time. A time of free love, parties, excess drinking, much like the sixrties but this was in the late thirties. The last chance for freedom in France before Hitlers advance.

This was also a pivotal time in Fridays life. She was recognized as an artist in her own right, not just referred to as Diego's wife. She had her own money and was no longer dependant on others. It was also the beginning of severe health problems, which would last the rest of her life. ( )

I had heard of Frida but had never read anything about her. This is an interesting book about Frida's time in Paris and her experiences with the art scene and artists of Paris. Quite an interesting story. Frida appears in Paris among the Surrealists both artistic and literary. The story is written by Marc Petitjean, the son of Michel.
I received this as a review copy. ( )