Mexico this week marks the 50th anniversary of Frida Kahlo's death with a series of retrospectives but also with the launching of a line of products bearing the name of the iconic, communist painter.
A feminist icon and a close friend of Russian communist leader Leon Trotsky during her lifetime, Kahlo, who died on July 13, 1954, has now fallen prey to what critics decry as crass commercialism.
To mark the anniversary, her niece Isolda Pinedo Kahlo will launch this week the "Frida Kahlo" line, that includes shawls, jewelry and sunglasses.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Prices start at US$100. The most Frida ever got for a painting was US$300.
The Kahlo family, which did not inherit the artist's works, has registered the name and signature of the painter as a trademark.
"The family has the right to use the name commercially," said Alejandro Trad, who is Pinedo Kahlo's business representative.
But Pinedo Kahlo has no rights to the paintings, which Frida's husband, muralist Diego Rivera, had donated to a foundation.
Further stirring controversy Pinedo Kahlo, 75, is set to publish a book that suggests Rivera helped Frida die.
"We reveal a great family secret," says Maria de Anda, the artist's great niece who compiled the book Frida Intima -- Spanish for "intimate Frida."
An anguished painter who suffered intense physical pain after being stricken by polio and severely wounded in a bus crash, Frida spent the last hours of her life in a semi-comatose state caused by pain-killers, according to art critic and biographer Raquel Tibol.
Her physical pain and her inability to have children were common themes in her paintings, many of which were shocking, bloody self-portraits.
After her death, Frida became "first a legend, then a myth, and now a cult figure," Hayden Herrera wrote in a 1992 biography of the Mexican artist.
The commercialization of Frida, whose images adorn calenders and greeting cards and whose tragic and turbulent life was recounted in a 2002 Hollywood movie, has outraged some members of her family.
"It is surprising to see her transformed into a commercial trademark," said photographer Cristina Kahlo, a niece of Frida, who describes the artist as "a fierce communist."
"In more than 20 years of being involved in culture, I have never seen an artist becoming a trademark," she said.
Tibol also expressed outrage over the commercial use of the rebellious artist's name.
"Anything that falls into Isolda's hands become a question of money, of great vulgarity," Tibol said.
Rivera's grandson Juan Coronel said it was a good thing the Frida family did not inherit the artist's works.
"Had it not been for Diego, the Frida paintings that are in Mexico would have been sold abroad," said Coronel, who will curate one of several anniversary exhibitions that opens this week in Mexico City.
In all, five exhibitions, several conferences, movie screenings and at least four new books will mark the half-century since Frida died of pneumonia just a few days after her 47th birthday.
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
Relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic have flourished in recent years. However, not everyone is pleased about the growing friendship between the two countries. Last month, an incident involving a Chinese diplomat tailing the car of vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Prague, drew public attention to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) operations to undermine Taiwan overseas. The trip was not Hsiao’s first visit to the Central European country. It was meant to be low-key, a chance to meet with local academics and politicians, until her police escort noticed a car was tailing her through the Czech capital. The
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless