Frida Kahlo's Month in Paris: A Friendship with Mary Reynolds [Hardcover]

The richly illustrated story of a brief yet pivotal encounter in Paris between Frida Kahlo and Mary Reynolds, two luminaries of the Surrealist movement
 
In February 1939, while visiting Paris at the invitation of writer Andre
Breton, Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (19071954) became sick and convalesced at the home of American expatriate Mary Reynolds (18911950), an avant-garde bookbinder, collector of Surrealist artist books, and partner of Marcel Duchamp. This book traces the story of Kahlo and Reynoldss connection and its influence on their work, even after the friendship had elapsed.
 
Kahlo and Reynoldss intense encounter unfolds in this volume through the artworks they each made, their shared exploration of Reynoldss expansive Surrealist library, and letters from Kahlo to her lover, American photographer Nickolas Muray, in which she recounted her time in Paris. Included in this focused study are paintings and drawings by Kahlo, selections of books by Reynolds, photographs by Muray of Kahlo, depictions of Reynolds by artists in Paris, and a selection of letters between Kahlo and Reynolds describing their defining experience together.
 
Distributed for the Art Institute of Chicago
 
Exhibition Schedule:
 
Art Institute of Chicago
(March 29July 13, 2025)

The publication includes images of a fascinating selection of art books that Duchamp and Reynolds bound for their closest friends in natural and synthetic materials such as leather, silk, vellum, and animal skins.Nageen Shaikh,Hyperallergic

Caitlin Haskellis the Gary C. and Frances Comer Curator in Modern and Contemporary Art and director of the Ray Johnson Collections and Research, andAlivé Piliado Santanais a research associate in Modern and Contemporary Art, both at the Art Institute of Chicago.This book tells the richly illustrated story of a brief yet pivotal encounter in Paris bet