María Izquierdo (1902–1955) and Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) were the first two Mexican women artists to achieve international recognition. During the height of the Mexican muralist movement, they established successful careers as easel painters and created work that has become an integral part of Mexican modernism. Although the iconic Kahlo is now more famous, the two artists had comparable reputations during their lives. Both were regularly included in major exhibitions of Mexican art, and they were invariably the only women chosen for the most important professional activities and honors. In a deeply informed study that prioritizes critical analysis over biographical interpretation, Nancy Deffebach places Kahlo’s and Izquierdo’s oeuvres in their cultural context, examining the ways in which the artists participated in the national and artistic discourses of postrevolutionary Mexico. Through iconographic analysis of paintings and themes within each artist’s oeuvre, Deffebach discusses how the artists engaged intellectually with the issues and ideas of their era, especially Mexican national identity and the role of women in society. In a time when Mexican artistic and national discourses associated the nation with masculinity, Izquierdo and Kahlo created images of women that deconstructed gender roles, critiqued the status quo, and presented more empowering alternatives for women. Deffebach demonstrates that, paradoxically, Kahlo and Izquierdo became the most successful Mexican women artists of the modernist period while most directly challenging the prevailing ideas about gender and what constitutes important art.

The self-portraits of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo are renowned for their dream-like quality and emotional intensity. A passionate woman endowed with an indomitable spirit, Kahlo overcame injury and personal hardship to become one of the world's most important female artists. Celebrated by the surrealists in her own lifetime, she has attained cult-like status both for her extraordinary art and her tempestuous love-life with her husband, Diego Rivera, Mexico's most prominent modern painter. An outstanding selection of paintings by Kahlo and Rivera form the core of this catalogue, which accompanies the National Gallery of Australia's exhibition. Jacques Gelman, the Russian emigre film producer, and his wife, Natasha, built up their collection over many years of acquaintance and collaboration with Mexico's greatest creative artists. It is now widely regarded as the most significant private holding of twentieth century American art.

A major proponent of the Mexican Renaissance, wife of Diego Rivera, communist, and pioneer of emancipation--the colorful life and work of Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) are inextricably interwoven, and at times staged like a play. The daughter of a German-born photographer, she was used to posing, and Kahlo began controlling the perception of her person early on. In her paintings and pain-filled self-portraits she dissected her innermost being, treading a new artistic path in the process. In portraits by friends and photographers such as Tina Modotti and Edward Weston she wears traditional clothing, turning her "Mexicanidad" into a trademark. Based on numerous paintings and photographs and with articles by acclaimed theorists such as Griselda Pollock and Mieke Bal, this book traces the stations of this unique artist's life, while relating Kahlo's art to that of her contemporaries, such as Diego Rivera, María Izquierdo, David Alfaro Siquieros, and José Clemente Orozco. (German edition ISBN 978-3-7757-3606-0) Exhibition schedule: ARKEN - Museum for Modern Art, Ishøj, September 7, 2013-January 12, 2014

Best known for her engaging portraits and sensuous still lifes, Mexican artist Maria Izquierdo (1902-1955) created a remarkable body of work that is deeply personal and profoundly affecting; yet she has often been overlooked amid the muralists who were her contemporaries.While European modernism was important to Izquierdo, Mexico's traditional culture, popular arts, and rural landscapes provided her with a lifelong source of subjects. Her numerous paintings lovingly depict the foods and hand-crafted objects used in popular ritual and devotion. In her later life, she produced a number of hauntingly surreal compositions that show vibrant tableaux of typically Mexican foods before barren, somber-hued landscapes with unusually deep perspectives.This book, based on the first comprehensive presentation of her oeuvre in New York, confirms Izquierdo's place in the history of Mexican art. In addition to bringing together some sixty outstanding paintings and works on paper by the artist, the book features three essays on her life and work: curator Elizabeth Ferrer presents an overview of Izquierdo's oeuvre; art historian Olivier Debroise analyzes the artistic relationship between Izquierdo and her mentor Rufino Tamayo, and Elena Poniatowski explores Izquierdo's position as a woman in the Mexican art world.

This volume documents the first international retrospective of one of Mexico's greatest artists, Maria Izquierdo. Trained privately, as was common for women of good social standing, she was unusual in also studying at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, where she was first a disciple of Diego Rivera and then developed intellectual bonds with Rufino Tamayo. Her work was included with theirs in a 1930 show of Mexican painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1936, Antonin Artaud visited Mexico seeking "a perfect example of primitive civilizations with a magical spirit", which he found in Izquierdo's paintings.