Gannit Ankori – författare

Though often portrayed in scholarly literature as a spontaneous artist, Frida Kahlo worked in a quite deliberate manner, basing her paintings on diverse cultural and philosophical sources. Imaging Her Selves uncovers the unexplored visual and textual foundations of Kahlo's imagery, illustrating—through a detailed study of her diary, letters, library collection, and other material— the complex multilayered meanings of the many selves she comprised. In dozens of self-portraits, Kahlo examined the conventional and unconventional roles with which she attempted to identify. Ankori's work offers an innovative interpretation of her art as a major contribution to the ongoing human quest for a fuller understanding of the meaning of self.Acknowledging her failure to conform to traditional female roles, such as that of wife and mother, Kahlo investigated alternative options. Her physical, metaphysical, social, and genealogical selves—including Lilith, La Llorona, La Malinche, the Crowned Nun, and the Hindu goddess Parvati— are all on display in her art. Transcending typical biographical inquiries, Ankori has created a broader study of the way in which Kahlo's art both reflected and refracted her multifaceted identity.

Frida Kahlo stepped into the limelight in 1929 when she married the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. She was 22; he was 43. Hailed as Rivera’s exotic young wife who ‘dabbles in art’, she went on to produce brilliant paintings, but remained in her husband’s shadow throughout her life. Today, almost six decades after her untimely death, Kahlo’s fame rivals that of Rivera and she has gained international acclaim as a path-breaking artist and a cultural icon.Cutting through ‘Fridamania’, this book explores Kahlo’s life, art and legacies, while also scrutinizing the myths, contradictions and ambiguities that riddle her dramatic story. Gannit Ankori examines Kahlo’s early childhood, medical problems, volatile marriage, political affiliations, religious beliefs and, most important, her unparalleled and innovative art. Based on detailed analyses of the artist’s paintings, diary, letters, photographs, medical records and interviews, the book also assesses Kahlo’s critical impact on contemporary art and culture.Kahlo was of her time, deeply immersed in the issues that dominated the first half of the twentieth century. Yet, as this book reveals, she was also ahead of her time. Her paintings challenged social norms and broke taboos, addressing themes such as the female body, gender, cross-dressing, hybridity, identity and trauma, in ways that continue to inspire contemporary artists across the globe. Frida Kahlo is a succinct and powerful account of the life, art and legacy of this iconic artist.

Published on the occasion of the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires's (MALBA) twenty-fifth anniversary, Latin American Art presents the MALBA–Costantini Collection through a chronological structure of five chapters, tracing artistic developments from the early Latin American avant-garde to contemporary practice.Since its inception in 2001, when founder Eduardo F. Constantini donated over two hundred pieces from his personal collection, the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA) has become a leading institution for the study and presentation of modern and contemporary Latin American art. Today, the museum operates as a dynamic cultural center, housing more than seven hundred works of art by artists from Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Mexico, Ecuador, Cuba, Colombia, Venezuela, and Chile, among other countries. MALBA's holdings have recently expanded to include over one thousand additional works by over one hundred artists, with Constantini acquiring the entire Daros Latinamerica Collection in one of the most significant institutional acquisitions of Latin American art in decades.Featuring painting, sculpture, photography, works on paper, and new media, this volume includes key works by artists such as Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Tarsila do Amaral, Wifredo Lam, Antonio Berni, Xul Solar, Joaquín Torres-García, Lygia Clark, León Ferrari, Doris Salcedo, and others. Nineteen newly commissioned essays by leading scholars provide critical perspectives on the collection’s historical scope, cultural contexts, and ongoing relevance, alongside an introduction examining Constantini's vision.