Marc Petitjean; The Heart - Frida Kahlo in Paris

9781590519905, Hardcover, Pub date April 28th, 2020, Other Press, NY/USA (Penguin Random House)


Marc Petitjean is a filmmaker, photographer and writer who set out to write about a lesser known period of Frida Kahlo's life in Paris in 1938  also investigating the meaning of a painting called "The Heart" she gave to his father. It is also an attempt to find out about the seriousness of the romance that developed between them. Michel Petitjean was working in an art gallery Renou & Colle in Paris during the 1930ties, an important place for the Surrealist movement around Andre Breton, Dali, Picasso and Marcel Duchamp. Petitjean was also the official lover of wealthy intellectual, Marie-Laure de Noailles, living with her and her husband in their villa.  

Frida Kahlo had met the Breton's in Mexico City granting them refuge at her and Diego Rivera’s famous Blue house when they found themselves without a place to stay. Out of gratitude Breton offered to arrange her first exhibition in Paris for her but when she arrives by ship from New York, nothing has been set up and her sleeping arrangement at Breton’s house is not what Frida is expecting. She and Breton's wife Jacqueline Lamba become close friends starting an affair but the bisexual Frida becomes also very attracted to Michel Petitjean who is her contact at Renou & Colle where her exhibition is finally taking shape. Their attractions leads to a passionate romance, something Marc Petitjean discovers many years’ later thru letters made available to him from various sources after having been contacted by  journalists and  historians from the US.  

I was very fascinated by this very personal and intimate account of Marc Petitjean’s investigation into his father’s time with Frida, learning a lot about this rather unknown period in Frida Kahlo's life and the surrealist connection. It was a crucial period for Frida as a serious artists when Diego Rivera was on the verge of leaving her after conducting an affair with her sister Christina. The clash between the very emotional Frida and the more abstract intellect of the surrealist artists in Paris could not have been more pronounced producing some fascinating encounters. 

This is a book for readers interested in art,  feminist literature and art history; I greatly enjoyed reading the proof of this upcoming small hardback.