Frida Kahlo and how she became a marketing product

 hey charlie! for my first article on the blog I wanted to talk about my favourite painter : Frida Kahlo, and more specifically, how she became a marketing product, and why it is a problem because I’ve always wondered how a Mexican painter born in 1907 ended up printed on mugs, T-Shirts and so many commercial products, by people barely knowing who she was or her artwork. One thing’s for sure, it’s not because of her artwork that she became rich and famous during her living. She was mostly unknown to the public at the time, while she is now one of the most famous female artist. So I made a few research to know how she became such a commercial object.

When Frida died in 1954, the commercial rights were divided: The rights on her artwork were given to her husband, Diego Rivera, while the rights on her name were given to her niece, Isolde Kahlo, who created the Frida Kahlo Corporation. Her goal was to pay tribute to her aunt, while the money earned would be given to non profit associations.

But at her death, the company was given to Carlos Dorado, who transformed the « Frida Kahlo Corporation » into a commercial entity, making tons of by-products with her name on it, T-Shirts, mugs, perfumes, cloths, bags, figurines, etc… Which was in no way what Frida’s family would have wanted.

Today the company makes millions of dollars of benefits, they even created a museum close to a tourist’s seaside resort, which contains only bad reproductions of Frida’s painting or photographs, but not a single artwork she produced (the right being still owned by her family).

There’s even a Snapchat filter that adds red lipstick, flowers in the hairs and lightens the skin. A total nonsense, knowing how Frida was proud of her Mexican origins !

now here’s some famous artwork of Frida Kahlo she should really be recognized for :  

hope you enjoyed this article and found this interesting!!