ARTIKA INTRODUCES THE DREAMS OF FRIDA KAHLO (LOS SUEÑOS DE FRIDA), A UNIQUE VISION OF THE EMBLEMATIC MEXICAN ARTIST'S OEUVRE.
After a meticulous research, selection, editing, and crafting process, ARTIKA publishers lands for the first time in America with The Dreams of Frida Kahlo (Los Sueños de Frida), a stunning art book showcasing Frida Kahlo’s drawings, paintings, and testimonials of her time, offering a different slant on the iconic Mexican painter.
ARTIKA is Grupo Planeta’s publishing house that specializes in artist's books: limited editions created in conjunction with great international artists and produced using painstaking artisan processes. Grupo Planeta’s works include Art Books from artists such as Fernando Botero, Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Van Gogh, and, now, Frida Kahlo.
It took four years to complete The Dreams of Frida Kahlo, ARTIKA’S take on Kahlo’s mythical character. The work is displayed in a handcrafted case inspired by Friday’s work. It includes a Study Book featuring close to one hundred drawings, countless paintings, photographs, and connoisseur texts, as well as a 34-sheet Art Book with the most prominent drawings of the world-renowned artist.
The Dreams of Frida Kahlo is limited to 2998 copies worldwide and showcases a unique creation emulating the artist’s own materials, tonal values, and aesthetics, which practically turns this artists’ book into a work of art in itself.
The Case: packaging that evokes a unique insight into the artist
In a unique piece that longs to convey the aesthetic and biographical universe of Frida Kahlo, The Dreams of Frida Kahlo’s outer case provides us with the first glance of this stunning project by ARTIKA.
A striking opener, the outer shell displays Kahlo’s oil Self-portrait with thorned necklace and hummingbird, 1940 (detail), handcrafted and bound in canvas in keeping with the picturesque character of the original and the materials that permeated the artist’s daily life.
The wooden case is an original design inspired by the vegetation that is so indicative of Frida’s works and environment. This wooden, outermost piece also emulates the distinctive leaves in her work and natural surroundings. This vegetation, such as the chamaedorea elegans, or Mexican parlor palm, provided a protective symbology to the artist, and was part of the garden in the Casa Azul (the Blue House), the Coyoacán residence where Kahlo lived and produced many of her works during a large part of her life.
Study Book*: the story and the why behind Kahlo’s drawings and paintings
Through the words of some of the most internationally respected connoisseurs of Kahlo’s work, including María del Sol Argüelles San Millán, director of the Museo Casa Estudio Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo; Juan Rafael Coronel Rivera, journalist, poet, and grandson to Diego Rivera; and Helga Prignitz-Poda, art historian and exhibit curator – the Study Book in The Dreams of Frida Kahlo provides an excellent introduction to the life and work of this iconic character.
In “Frida Kahlo. An approximation to the myth”, María del Sol Argüelles traces the painter’s vital and artistic milestones up until she became an iconic figure. In Rafael Coronel’s essay “Recumbent, in four experiential points”, he examines how the artist employed posing, paying close attention to some of the portraits in which her figure is portrayed lying down, a stance adopted (almost by sheer need) throughout her life and which she developed so well throughout her career. Lastly, doctor Helga Prignitz-Poda, also co-author of the catalog created on the works of Frida Kahlo, introduces the first detailed study on the artist’s works on paper.
All texts contained in the Study Book are illustrated with around 100 drawings, and countless paintings and photographs. The originals works can be found around the world in private collections and in museums in Mexico, the United States, and Europe, which makes The Dreams of Frida Kahlo one of today’s most formal and best curated compilations of this stylistic vein of the artist’s.
Art Book**: sketches of a beleaguered life
Showcasing 140 pages that include 34 prints (plus a loose sample enclosed in the binder), the Art Book is the cornerstone of The Dreams of Frida Kahlo. These prints offer deep insight into Kahlo’s drawings that served as studies for oil paintings, portraits of herself, as well as those of friends and lovers, fantasies and dreams, landscapes, and still-lifes.
These drawings have been printed in their original size and are complemented by phrases extracted from notes found in Frida’s diary in her own handwriting. Her drawings express her most intimate world and, at the same time, constitute her most obscure creations.
Additionally, to acknowledge its importance as an essential element to this edition, the Art Book has been bound in a DM oaken plywood cover featuring a cutout of the artist’s name, proof of the care taken of this title, which pays attention to even the minutest of
details to safeguard the treasured selection of drawings made for The Dreams of Frida Kahlo.
Both bilingual and monolingual editions of The Dreams of Frida Kahlo will be on sale worldwide starting June 22, 2021.
The official American arrival of ARTIKA’s twenty-eighth masterpiece
Through the launch of The Dreams of Frida Kahlo, ARTIKA reaches two of its main goals: to offer a fresh and totally unique angle on one of the most relevant artists and figures of the last century, and to arrive for the first time on American soil to establish itself as a publisher specializing in limited edition artists’ books concocted through the most meticulous of crafting processes.
Their collection boasts a large selection of international artists and a wide range of contemporary works that lures the reader to take in the essence of every single one of them. The concepts, designs, materials used, as well as the development of unpublished or little-known editions are the pillars of their editorial vision.
ARTIKA first asserted its strong commitment to art and the creation of luxurious artists’ books in 2003 with a publication on Salvador Dalí. It has since dedicated its efforts to portraying the greatest masters in the history of art such as Botero, Plensa, Barceló, Cabellut, Tàpies, Picasso, Van Gogh, Sorolla, Antonio López, Miró, Chillida, Dalí, Toulouse-Lautrec, Goya, and Rembrandt, comprising a unique collection of 28 masterpieces to date.
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About ARTIKA
Founded in 2003, ARTIKA is a publishing house that, as part of Grupo Planeta, specializes in the production of artists’ books: limited editions based on the works of great international creators in the ranks of Gaudí, Lita Cabellut, Jaume Plensa, Fernando Botero, Toulouse-Lautrec, Joaquín Sorolla, Joaquín Sabina, and Frida Kahlo, and crafted through meticulous processes that make each of their pieces one-of-a-kind. ARTIKA’s catalog currently offers a collection of contemporary works that beckon their readers to unveil the essence of each of their artists, inspired in every case by design and innovation, from the conception of the project all the way to their selection of materials.
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*The Study Book in The Dreams of Frida Kahlo comes in monolingual format, meaning it is available as either a fully Spanish or fully English edition.
** The Art Book in The Dreams of Frida Kahlo is available in bilingual format, in both Spanish and English.
