Kahlo tequila fuels Fridamania row

Wednesday, 11 January 2006 18:14

· Niece launches drink bearing artist's image
· Critics say marketing is disrespectful Dan Glaister in Los Angeles...The Guardian
Frida Kahlo Tequila is made in Jesús María in the highlands of Jalisco in Mexico and comes in three varieties. Each bottle bears a picture of Kahlo and sells under the slogan "Being original is no sin". The Frida Kahlo Corporation, created by Isolda Kahlo, also plans to market a 50cm Frida doll. The family has marketed Frida Kahlo jewellery and clothing after her niece won the rights to register the name as a brand. But the commercialization of the painter, who died in 1954 at the age of 47, has provoked a row between her friends, family and critics. Movies, biographies and exhibitions have promoted Kahlo as much for her work as for her lifestyle, leading to what critics label "Fridamania". Her work is held in most major collections, and the Mexican actor Salma Hayek portrayed her in a 2002 biopic. Famously bawdy, Kahlo married the muralist Diego Rivera but also had many lovers, including Leon Trotsky. One of the biggest collectors of her work is the singer Madonna. "The person at the centre of this commercialization is Frida Kahlo and if she knew what was being done in her name, poor thing, I think her ashes would be moving in their urn," the art historian Teresa del Conde told the Mexican newspaper El Universal. The art critic Raquel Tibol, who lived with Kahlo for several years at the end of her life, questioned the right of the painter's niece to market the name, arguing that a trust established by Rivera owned the rights and that all profits should go back to the trust. "It's shameful," she said. "Who gave them permission to use her name? Isolda has gone mad in her desire to make money from her family name. This time she's stepped over the line, it's a total lack of respect."

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