Frida Kahlo Was a Painter, a Brand Builder, a Survivor. And So Much More.

Why say that Casa Azul was the home that Frida "shared" with Diego Rivera? It was her family home. She was born and died there. I believe that he lived there at some point, briefly, but it was her house. The two artists "shared" neighbouring homes in San Angel, Mexico City with a bridge joining the two residences. Frida is an icon in Mexico. Her image and art are everywhere: t-shirts, handbags, cantina walls, fridge magnets, dolls, street murals, etc. There is a long line up every day to visit Casa Azul. Frida and her work have gone far beyond her association with Diego Rivera.

It is interesting to me that a good portion of these comments keep referring to "branding", or a shameless form of self promotion, or mediocrity, or??? If Frida Kahlo did practice all of this, I don't think it was on a conscious level from the get-go, but rather, evolved into her own form of personal style, which, in turn, formed her own personal identity. She took what limited resources she had, and made lemonade out of lemons. It was the rabidly curious and adoring public which made her so popular, and continues to, to this day.

I would characterise it as celebrity worship of a dead person. Most professional social media types would kill for the branding genius of Frida, but unlike Frida, most professional social media types are bereft of any talent.

Frida Kalho epitomizes the fine interweaving of art and fashion, another clever money-making scheme that is so much the rage these days. A bevy of examples regarding contemporary artist's foray into the fashion world could be brought up and validate such a claim. This is not to minimize the quality and relevance of F.K's artistic output, whatever that is, yet it seems that from the reading of this article that her nonconventional tastes in things ranging from clothing to beauty accessories in today's world tend to surpass and even supersede her artistic voice, at least when her pictural production is at stake.

Frida Kahlo is a textbook example of the artist who keeps getting in the way of her art. When people talk about Frida Kahlo, it's always about her clothes, her hair, her makeup, her jewelry, her politics, her love affairs, her accident, her illness, how much she suffered, what a great victim she was. And, oh, yes, she also did a little painting. On a technical level, her art ranges from poor to competent. There was always an amateurishness she never overcame. But nobody seems to care about that today. It's the content that makes her so popular: her fascination with herself, her angry politics, her morbidity, her bottomless capacity for self-pity. Vincent Van Gogh is another artist whose cult tends to drown out his actual achievement. But at least in Van Gogh's output are a few undisputed masterpieces. Kahlo's paintings are masterpieces only on a chic 21st century political level. She is an artist for people who are more interested in artists than in art.

They have branding classes at Harvard? I’m amazed—and disappointed.

With regard to "branding" vs. artistic authenticity, put Frida's work next to Warhol's and Frida is by far the more interesting and competent artist.

Was this article describing a Kardashian or one of the world’s greatest modern artist? This article is shallow and I’ll-informed, and a disservice to such a great woman. Frida Kahlo was so much more than a “brand” or shade of lipstick. We should be reading about her passionate political views, her loves, her traumas, and her fierce pride in being Mexican. This is what inspired her, not the thought of being reduced to a brand or an image on a cheap tote bag or T-shirt.

I'm a bit appalled by the comments of Freda! She was a TRUE individual, Original and successful at seeking attention through color and her own chemistry of experiment and routine that actually worked!

A total no talent. If it weren't for Diego Rivera, she would of been forgotten a long, long time ago.

"The artist and pop culture icon meticulously built her own image" ...really? This is the view of todays careerist thinking in art. Frida did build an image...she was who she was and on the contrary to what the article says did NOT care what others thought and thus was a true individual. It is difficult for many curators and critics to really understand how an artist can think in a free spirited way since that kind of thinking is foreign to the "professional industrial art complex".

She so meticulously constructed her image and persona, who would otherwise have paid that much attention? Kahlo is to art what Allende is to literature: two carefully crafted appearances of talent, in the best tradition of advertising...

But primarily, Frida Kahlo was a self promoter. Come to think of it, that's all she was.

I disagree. Her style was the result of someone who did not care what others had to say when asserting her preferences, even if her choices were not mainstream. It was not a conscious effort to stand out with self branding. If she had not been the wife of a famous painter, she would've been dismissed as tasteless instead of eccentric. Now she is portrayed as a genius even though her style and art is indeed tasteless instead of intellectual like most contemporary art that is currently trashy, unchallenging, and visually overdone.

I’m close friends with an older woman that has lived her entire life in Coyoacán. I love taking walks with her as she points out homes and tells me who used to live in the neighborhood when she was growing up. When we walk by the Blue House it’s astonishing to see long lines of tourists but it makes my friend roll her eyes, since she comments her mother used to call Frida “esa mujer loca”. Makes me laugh every time she tells that story.

Compared to Diego Rivera she was only a mediocre talent.

Using the term “branding” about Frida’s self expression would probably make her roll in her grave. “The most important thing for everyone in Gringolandia is to have ambition and become ‘somebody,’ and frankly, I do not have the least ambition to become anybody.” - Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo has always blown me away. She was a superstar.

The author imposes a contemporary American idea, that of a personal "brand," with Frida Kahlo's deliberate style. In my view, few things are more lamentable about our society than thinking of oneself as a brand. How crass and how limiting! Had she been hung up on self-branding, Frida would not have worn men's clothing sometimes. Frida enjoyed using a brand, Revlon; she herself was an artist, a daring one. Let's not cheapen that with bland, brand ideas.

I’ve just returned from Mexico City where I went to celebrate my birthday, and also to research an article I wished to compose as a rebuke to the repulsive, defmamatory salvos heaped upon this ancient culture by our resident cretin in Chief. It was a remarkable and unforgettable experience. The city is a vibrant and exciting cosmopolitan study in contrasts, profoundly rich in beauty and exemplary culinary thrills beyond the poor imitation Tex-Mex incarnations of their gastronomy we offer in our mind-numbing, soul-killing, cookie-cutter, strip mall, dead food tumescence. The highlight of the entire journey was having finally crossed the threshold of “The Blue House” that had been a lifelong aspiration. The house, without question, reverberates with the uncanny, palpable essences of the creative geniuses that dwelled therein. You don’t want to leave it. You want to sit at table with its ghosts in the yellow, blue, and earthenware kitchen. You long to sit silently reading, while occasionally gazing up to watch Frida sitting in her wheelchair working at the large easel. You want to stay into the evening and let the deep blues disappear and watch the yellow lights flood the many windows so that from the garden, you can spy Diego and Frida having a conversation while sitting astride the tiled frogs swimming in the fountain pond. I left twice as bewitched by her as I was before I came. So much so that I am thrilled I can return to her life, sooner than hoped, in Brooklyn.

Teaching Branding at Harvard? You're kidding!

Having returned from Mexico City yesterday, and after visiting Casa Azul, Frida's home the day before, I was privy to the intimate story of Frida's life. It was clear that Frida's bon-vivant personality and unwavering love for her genius artist husband, Diego Rivera, placed her bohemian life-style and left wing political views into an orbit that equaled and surpassed most artists of the mid 20th century. However, what most struck me was the convalescing bed Frida lived in for months at a time during her many illnesses. The bed housed a mirror and easel in its canopy so that Frida could look at herself and then paint. In Mexican culture, the word 'Milagro' means 'miracle', but is also the name of a folkloric painting style that often depicts and describes in writing the story of a personal ordeal ranging from being bit by a dog to serious medical issues and is often accompanied by the thanking of a Deity for a positive outcome. Frida painted many of these Milagro's early on in her career, the natural extension of which, in my opinion, became the canvases of her medical maladies, https://www.fridakahlo.org/the-two-fridas.jsp. An amazing woman, one of the world's premier practitioners of sublimation, her art was the balm that carried her through a physically difficult life. I urge everyone to visit her ancestral home in Mexico City (Casa Azul), the Leon Trotsky museum nearby, and have a bowl of Pozole at the Mercado de Cayoacan down the street.

Really...her choice of lipstick is important? Her admirers seem to be working hard on creating the mythology of Frida

San Francisco staged a transfixing exhibit of Kahlo's work some years back. It was riveting and gave a sense of her captivating life and expression as an artist and her mysticism too. The movie, "Frieda", was for me another valentine to her talent. The soundtrack is elegiac and haunting.

The few paintings of hers I have seen IRL are exquisite. She painted on a fairly small scale. They remind me of the Dutch masters with their attention to detail and rich color. Her imagery is very relatable to viewers who don't have an art history background. Quite a few negative reactions in this comment thread. If you don't like her work, move on. I'll be in NYC in April. Hopefully the line to enter this exhibition won't be as nuts as the line I encountered to visit her house in Mexico City.

I look forward to seeing the exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. Frida Kahlo was a complex person who suffered, and was in constant pain as a result of the streetcar accident. Her art in some ways reflects her suffering, but also her independence and strength. I have also visited the Casa Azul (Blue House) in Mexico City, where she and Diego Rivera lived from 1929 to 1954. It is a beautiful house indeed, with much beautiful art that reflects her love of her country.

I think the “branding class” remark was intriguing as it is telling us that, as an artist, she was very deliberate with her “look” as a promotional device and statement. She didn’t simply leave her house after throwing on some colorful shmatas in a rush. And considering she traded in self-portraits it is valid to connect her unique look with both her artistry and marketing talent.

stop saying bus. it was a streetcar accident.

Authentic, intelligent, complex, flawed, vibrant. Fascinating. Human. When we look at life through her lens we see a world and a way of living that few of us attain.

Informative and interesting article. I look forward to seeing the exhibition in Brooklyn!

"If she were alive today, she’d probably be teaching a branding class at Harvard." No, if she were alive today, she would be an artist.

Frida Kahlo was an exceptional woman and artist. It seems to me the critics here have missed it. Just saying....

This article takes a very cynical view of Frida Kahlo's personal style and life. Frida placed animals in her self-portraits because she loved them and because she could not have children of her own. She had a definitive sense of who she was and had a passionate love of Mexico. The commodification of her spirit and her style is because of our society.

Frida Kahlo is one of the great artists - ground-breaking, aesthetically daring, truly extraordinary. This is a good article, but fails to adequately focus o the inventive imagery and bold assertion of a woman's experience that emerges from her work with a truly unique and beautiful aesthetic sensibility. The comparison with her husband, which it seems she can never escape, is totally beside the point. He was a great mural painter, without a doubt, but the constant comparison is only because he was her husband and is completely beside the point.

Fascinating artist. Interesting woman. Thanks.

If Frida is such a legendary woman artist and garners so much global press, why does one of her husband's paintings *eclipse* her highest selling painting by a cool 1.6 million? Food for thought that inequality is still very, very much with us with regards to notable women in the art world.

I viewed many of Diego Rivera's murals in the government buildings and galleries in Mexico and he was an exceptional talent, Frida on the other hand was a "performance artist" more than a painter

I saw a similar exhibition in Santa Fe and came away underwhelmed. It seems to me that this was a shallow life somehow transformed into hagiology.

"If she were alive today she would be teaching branding...." Are you kidding me? Study Frida. She was a hardline communist who had an affair with Trotsky. Any idea who he was? This statement is an insult to Kahlo and her political interests and views. The capitalist systems have been making money off of her since the 70's.

Personally, I don't see much of value in Kahlo's work. However, it seems to me that the Art Establishment is working very hard to create a big reputation for her.