Frida & Diego: Art, Love, Life by Catherine Reef (review)

Even if teen readers are unfamiliar with Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, they’re sure to be intrigued by this book’s cover photograph of the beautiful, petite young woman snuggled adoringly against the older, pot-bellied gent, alongside the implied subtitle promise of a love story. And what a tumultuous love story it is, from teenaged Frida teasing the older professional muralist at her high school, through their stormy, infidelity-racked marriage and subsequent divorce, and on to their platonic remarriage, when they realized they could no more live apart than together. Reef tackles the unconventional love story head-on, with a candor that pulls no punches with its youth audience. The pair were, however, artists—mutually supportive and referential in their art—and it is here that this title tends to stumble, largely from inconsistent organization, which frequently separates illustrations from textual references, and even more gratingly, lacks reproductions of pivotal works described at length within the text. There is, for example, no view of Rivera’s controversial mural in the Palace of Cortez, depicting Spaniards massacring indigenous people, nor of Kahlo’s “Henry Ford Hospital,” described as a “breakthrough” painting that marked her shift toward intensely personal and symbolic works. This may nonetheless be well-received by biography readers, who would be hard-pressed to find a more striking contrast in real life love stories than between Frida & Diego and Heiligman’s Charles and Emma (BCCB 2/09). Index, source notes for the myriad color and black and white illustrations, bibliography, timeline, illustration credits, and mini galleries of the artists’ work are included.