Frida Kahlo: Her Life, Her Work, Her Home, published by SelfMadeHero

By Carlos Morales

on February 22, 2023

Frida Kahlo, remembered as one of the most inspiring personalities of the 20th century, was a woman of two intertwined parts: she was both a charismatic and empowered artist exploring themes of resistance, authenticity, cruelty, and suffering, and a more private person whose wounded body caused her a lifetime of pain that underpinned the many successes and disappointments that marked her time in the world. Revealing and exploring these two Fridas, Francisco de la Mora’s graphic biography – completed with the endorsement and support of the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City – vividly documents the landscapes and environments that inspired her, the dreams and nightmares that drove her, and the many people she loved. It is also a joyously beautiful tribute to her life, her work, her home – and her art.

“Frida Kahlo’s work has been widely celebrated as representative of Mexican national and indigenous traditions, and for depicting the female experience and form. Overcoming illness, trauma, and physical injury, her iconic life, and the enduring art she made of it, communicate indomitable strength and the constant possibility of change.”
— Circe Henestrosa

Francisco de la Mora’s experience as a comics creator, whether as sole author or in collaboration with illustrators from around the world, extends from single-sheet forms to full graphic novels, and from his eight-volume Brief History of Mexico to the monthly piece he has drawn for the Hackney Citizen since January 2018. His most recent graphic novel with long-term collaborator José Luis Pescador is a biography of Diego Rivera, published by SelfMadeHero.