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 Vallarta Living | Art Talk | June 2007 
Critics Paint Kahlo's Family As Greedy
 Oscar Avila - Chicago Tribune
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| | Frida Kahlo. Self-Portrait with Monkeys. 1943. Oil on canvas. |
Even family is split on commercialization of Frida Kahlo, a national icon — and communist.
Mexico City — Fans don't need to visit a museum to see this version of Frida Kahlo's classic "Self-Portrait With Monkeys." They travel instead to an upscale boutique in Mexico City's version of Beverly Hills, just past the Bentley dealership.
Dressed in all black, a salesman at the Pineda Covalin store sets out a $110 scarf with Kahlo's masterwork and $64 silk ties with miniature Fridas. Don't worry, art lovers: They accept most major credit cards.
This sort of commercialization has outraged many intellectuals and Kahlo devotees who otherwise would be joining the nationwide celebration of her birth 100 years ago Friday.
Although the artist has graced merchandise for years, her niece formed the Frida Kahlo Corp. in 2005 to cement Kahlo as an upscale brand. Another branch of relatives has watched with dismay as the corporation approved a Frida Kahlo tequila, a $250 collectible doll and even Kahlo sunglasses.
Ofelia Medina, who portrayed Kahlo in a 1984 Mexican movie and is producing a new play about the artist, said the marketing is tough to swallow. Kahlo, controversial because she was a bisexual communist, would have been shunned in the same upscale establishments that now profit from her image, Medina said.
"Everything is sold, everything is consumed, everything is advertised. And that includes Frida. In her time, she was so rejected that she would die of laughter to see all this," Medina said during a break from rehearsals in Kahlo's old neighborhood of Coyoacan.
Little-celebrated in her time
Kahlo wasn't as fashionable when she formed half of an artistic power couple with muralist Diego Rivera. Historians say there was only one major exhibition in Mexico of Kahlo's work before her death in 1954.
Because she was crippled by polio and a bus accident, Kahlo often stayed inside and consequently produced a bounty of agonized self-portraits.
She went on to become an icon, especially among women and the gay community.
A 2002 movie starring Salma Hayek sent "Fridamania" into the stratosphere, but the centennial of her birth has fueled interest again. The Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City recently unveiled an ambitious Kahlo retrospective, while the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago is planning a "birthday party" Friday for Kahlo.
Even before this current boom in interest, the Bank of Mexico controlled the rights to her works, including the Pineda Covalin line. But Kahlo's niece and other relatives have started asserting their independent right to license products and rein in the trinkets that carry Kahlo's image.
Backed by a cadre of wealthy investors, niece Isolda Pinedo Kahlo said the Frida Kahlo Corp. wants to "place the name Frida Kahlo as a brand that expresses and reflects strength, energy, commitment and passion," according to the firm's Web site. Another company executive told EFE news agency that "the products have the same spirit she had: strong and innovative and, above all, Mexican."
Company executives could not be reached for further comment, but one of the firm's top sellers is a controversial line of Frida Kahlo tequila making the rounds on Florida's South Beach and other trendy areas at up to $100 a bottle.
The family has tried to play up Kahlo's connection to tequila by asking distiller Carlos Munoz to devise a recipe faithful to the tequila techniques of the 1940s. "What is more Mexican than Frida and tequila? The combination is tremendous," Munoz said.
But historians say Kahlo turned to alcohol and drugs because of the excruciating pain from her injuries. A quote attributed to Kahlo alludes to her dependence: "I drank to drown my sorrows, but the damn things learned to swim."
One artist and writer tried to organize a boycott in Los Angeles in 2005 of the Frida Kahlo tequila, which he called "pitiless exploitation." Meanwhile, another faction of the family and cultural critics have condemned the "prostituting" of Kahlo by the Frida Kahlo Corp.
Cristina Kahlo, daughter of another niece, said the branding of Kahlo makes it even tougher to promote a more nuanced view of the artist's life, one of the goals of the Bellas Artes exhibition that she is helping curate.
"What we are interested in is the cultural side. I have no interest in getting involved with them. I don't know why they are doing what they are doing," Kahlo said in an interview. "The products aren't making Frida Kahlo any more important."
'Doesn't need more fame'
And Kahlo didn't buy the claims by Frida Kahlo Corp. executives that they are merely trying to promote the artist. "Frida Kahlo doesn't need more fame," she said, scoffing.
Cristina Pineda, co-founder of the Pineda Covalin store and a member of its design team, said she disagrees that pricey Kahlo ties diminish the artist's legacy. Kahlo would be pleased to be cast as the quintessential Mexican woman, said Pineda.
"Despite what all the world says, I think she would be proud that she had gotten this far," Pineda said.
For now, Fridamania shows no signs of waning. In addition to Medina's play, a group of musicians is planning a rock opera about Kahlo. When artist Spencer Tunick photographed 18,000 nude subjects in Mexico City's Zocalo last month, more than 100 women arrived with their hair styled like Kahlo's long tresses.
Hilda Trujillo, director of the Frida Kahlo Museum in the artist's former home, said she worries that Kahlo's relatives are going too far in selling her image. But in general, Trujillo thinks it is good that Mexicans are going gaga for an artist.
"We should have Fridamania. I wish other artists had this type of 'mania,' " Trujillo said. "It's better people that people be crazy for an artist than for a soccer player. At least this way, they can be inspired."
oavila@tribune.com |
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