This is one of those books that just didn't work for me, but might work for other people! I was really excited to read this book, because I've always been fascinating by Frida Kahlo's artwork and haven't ever learned a lot about it. I think it is a fascinating concept to really drill into 3 years that Frida spent in America with Diego Rivera, during the Great Depression. However, I honestly kept getting lost in some of the side discussions of occultism and philosophy in the beginning. Again, I think this is just the case of me not being in the right headspace for this book. Maybe I'll come back to it again! But if you're interested in learning more about Kahlo and the influence this time in America had on her art, definitely check this book out.

I have always been interested in learning about Frida and wanted to know about her years spent in America. However, it was hard to follow because it jumping back and forth in time. I would have enjoyed it more had it been told in a more chronological order.

A very informative biography of Frida. In a way it made me understand what she was going through and what she may have been feeling. There was a lot of description between her artwork and her lifestyle. The description of her artwork is always refreshing. Makes me appreciate her artwork and culture more.

I received an advanced digital copy of this book from the author, publisher and NetGalley.com. Thanks to all for the opportunity to read and review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Frida Kahlo was a force of nature. She was fiery, funny, talented yet sensitive and serious. This book looks at her years living in the United States and how that influenced her work.

A must read for any Frida fan!

5 out of 5 stars. Highly recommended.

While I’ve always been a fan of Frida Kahlo’s work, I didn’t know much about her, other than that she was Diego Rivera’s wife, was injured as a child, and was a free spirit and a bit of a rebel in her time. This very well-researched book not only helped me understand so much of what motivated and inspired Frida in her life and work, but it is also an art history lesson. Frida’s work during her brief time in the United States (or ‘Gringolandia’ as she called it) was intimate and personal, created within the context of personal and national tragedies. In her paintings, she described the tension between democratic American ideals and a changing world, as Hitler overtook Europe. She was a serious woman and a serious painter, not just Diego’s wife. I highly recommend Frida in America to anyone with an interest in Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, artists’ creative process, or North American history in the 1930s-40s. I received an egalley from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for the digital eARC. Who does not love Frida?!? I loved the whole thing. I wish she was still alive.

I love all things Frida. Another story featuring more of her time in America. Thanks for the read Net Gallery.

I really enjoyed this Biography! This book was generously provided to me through NetGalley. Highly Recommended!

I know next to nothing about Frida Kahlo, but I'm vaguely familiar with her artwork. I'm intrigued with her backstory and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to learn more about this Mexican artist.

Unfortunately, I didn't know enough of Kahlo's backstory to quite understand her as well as I would have liked. This book jumps around in time quite a bit, making it a bit confusing if you don't know more about her. There were many details that Stahr fixated on that added little to the overall story of Kahlo and I really would have appreciated a little more focus.

I will read any book about Frida Kahlo and this book did not disappoint! This is the story of the three years that Frida spent living in America and how trans-formative they were in respect to her art work. Stahr's writing is descriptive yet accessible. She clearly spent a lot of time researching and this book is very informative. A must read for any Frida fan!

A good story about a particular time line in Frida's life. Not a detailed view more of an overview. Enjoyable.

In 1930, newlyweds Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera embarked on a three-year stay to the United States where Diego had mural commissions in San Francisco, New York, and Detroit. Although Frida was seen by the press as a charming and subordinate wife, it is during this trip that she began to articulate her artistic identity, according to Celia Stahr in Frida in America.

Stahr’s extensively researched biography provides intimate details of Frida and Diego’s three years in the United States as well as key moments before and after the visit. She was given unprecedented access to Lucienne Bloch’s journal. Bloch, an artist who served as Diego’s apprentice and was close to the couple, wrote copiously about the couple. Along with the diary, Stahr uses Frida’s own letters, contemporaneous accounts, and academic sources to present a comprehensive though lively tale of a feisty, witty, talented, and volatile artist on the cusp of self-discovery.

The account of the couple’s activities in the United States, which includes descriptions of Frida’s mischievous mocking of Henry Ford and baiting of the Rockefellers, augmented by such personal sources, brings Frida to life. The book addresses Frida’s political views and her bisexuality and the tension of being an artist herself married to a man perceived as a genius.

Stahr argues that along with Frida’s foundational experiences in Mexico, her time in the United States provided a catalyst for her artistic voice. Both the macro issues—income inequality, high unemployment, and poverty—plus the personal—continued medical trials, a complicated relationship with Diego, and devastating losses as well as new and fruitful friendships and affairs ignited a creative spark that helped Frida’s genius mature.

Along with the chronicle of events, Stahr includes close analysis of important pieces Frida produced during this time, including Henry Ford Hospital, My Dress Hangs There, My Birth, Window Display on a Street in Detroit, and Self-Portrait on the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States, which appears on the cover of the book.. Since I don’t have a background in Art History, I don’t have the tools to evaluate her process of interpretation. Some of Stahr’s conclusions seemed very speculative, based on suppositions about what Frida might or might not have known, thought, or saw. At the same time, the rigorous attention to detail made me think about Frida’s paintings in a way I haven’t before.

Fabulous. Words just fail me after reading this exploration of Frida and her inner circle through the lens of the transitions that her time in the US provoked. Of course, the whole story of Frida's family and younger life must be woven into this for context, and the author does an excellent job of using primary sources like letters and interviews, as well as in-depth explorations of Frida's artworks produced during this time. It is a really moving and emotional book, and contains new information even for the Frida-philes out there who have read the other biographies. It also explores key concepts like Joseph Campbell's hero's journey, so it would be a great book for a humanities classroom. (And sources are cited impeccably.)

That said, Frida and Diego were difficult and complicated people, and their time in the US happened to coincide with the Great Depression, so it's not light reading. I rather wished I wasn't reading it this very sad week when the US has descended into race riots amid the ever-growing death toll of the pandemic. But perhaps Frida's greatest lesson for us is how to keep one's inner fires alive amid suffering, and in that case, it's exactly the right time for this book.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for a digital ARC for the purpose of an unbiased review.

Accurate and comprehensive telling of Frida Kahlo's life in America and how it shaped her creatively and is represented in her artwork. I think this is intriguing for the art enthusiast but not as enjoyable for the everyday reader. As an Art History major, I appreciated her well-researched account, but wish that this would have been written with a more moderate audience in mind. Everyone deserves to know and love Frida.

👑 Thanks @netgalley @stmartinspress for the gifted ebook arc of Frida in America! // I have always loved the work of Frida Kahlo and it was so cool to learn about the early years of her career and her time with Diego. Her work is fascinating and this book gave context that made me love her paintings even more. Her work was so complicated and had so much depth, I swear she was a true genius. If you are a Frida Kahlo fan (who isn't?), I definitely recommend this book! -- ♡M

FRIDA IN AMERICA | CELIA STAHR

SYNOPSIS: Mexican artist Frida Kahlo adored adventure. In November, 1930, she was thrilled to realize her dream of traveling to the United States to live in San Francisco, Detroit, and New York. Still, leaving her family and her country for the first time was monumental.

Only twenty-three and newly married to the already world-famous forty-three-year-old Diego Rivera, she was at a crossroads in her life and this new place, one filled with magnificent beauty, horrific poverty, racial tension, anti-Semitism, ethnic diversity, bland Midwestern food, and a thriving music scene, pushed Frida in unexpected directions. Shifts in her style of painting began to appear, cracks in her marriage widened, and tragedy struck, twice while she was living in Detroit.

Frida in America is the first in-depth biography of these formative years spent in Gringolandia, a place Frida couldn't always understand. But it's precisely her feelings of being a stranger in a strange land that fueled her creative passions and an even stronger sense of Mexican identity. With vivid detail, Frida in America recreates the pivotal journey that made Senora Rivera the world famous Frida Kahlo.

#deweyrating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

well researched and written this is a great book about Frieda. I loved all the descriptions and relationships in it. A very enjoyable book. Thank you #netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for my honest review.

This is a good look at the artist Frida Kahlo. While the title makes it seems as if the book will talk about primarily the time Frida was in the United States, it really is a complete biography. The author not only discusses Frida's life but also looks at her paintings and analyzes them not only on their own merits but as an extension of Frida's thoughts and emotions about what was happening in the world around her.

This book tells the story of Kahlo’s time in America and how those years impacted her life. This history is great for the Kahlo aficionado but includes a significant amount of detail that makes the text cumbersome to the average reader. I enjoyed learning about Kahlo from this book but do not think it would be a good text for my students.

This book was such an easy and fun read. The story just flows and was so descriptive that it truly was like you were traveling with Frida throughout the country. I had heard of Frida of course but had never really read about her life before and this book was the perfect introduction to her story. Even those this only focuses on a short portion of Frida's life it shows rich her life was and what an influential person she was. This was a stellar biography and I look forward to reading more from this author.

A really engaging, interesting look at Frida's life in America. It's a topic I've not seen before, so I was fascinated throughout. It's also written in an accessible way, making it easy to follow along. It felt more like prose in some parts rather than a historical account. Excellent.