The reading revolution between the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and Frida Kahlo’s visual attractors

Abstract

This qualitative, descriptive paper is aimed at presenting a review of the socio-historic context, life and work of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, as well as carrying out an analysis of the visual elements that attracted different readers from a theoretical viewpoint different from the critical appraisal presently given to the painter. To reach those aims, the theoretical framework was drawn from studies by Canevacci (2008), concerning visual attractors, and Santaella (2004, 2013), who provides definitions of the types of readers existing between the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries. For the reconstruction of Mexican history and Frida’s biography, the study draws on works by Fernández (2002), Florencio (2014), Henestrosa (2012), Herrera (2011), Kettenmann (2015) and Zamora (2007). Partial results, as the study is still in progress, suggest that Frida Kahlo, as a bodyspace, created a dress-code, a unique style based on her socio historical background and on her location; and, by doing so, she attracted eyes that were not used to the semiotics she printed.