{"id":243231,"date":"2026-01-20T22:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T22:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/243231\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T22:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T22:06:10","slug":"frida-kahlos-popularity-raises-eyebrows-at-tate-modern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/243231\/","title":{"rendered":"Frida Kahlo\u2019s popularity raises eyebrows at Tate Modern"},"content":{"rendered":"

Frida Kahlo may be helping to write women into art history, but her popularity has made it hard to gather paintings for an exhibition.<\/p>\n

Curators of the forthcoming Kahlo showcase at Tate Modern have only been able to secure 36 of the Mexican artist\u2019s pieces, with Madonna among those refusing to lend their cherished works.<\/p>\n

When Tate Modern last held a major Kahlo exhibition in 2005, more than 50 paintings, including two owned by the pop star, were put on public display.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Are you ready for Frida Kahlo and Tracey Emin at Tate Modern?<\/a><\/p>\n

However, Kahlo has since become one of the most sought-after and expensive female artists in the world and is arguably en route to becoming the most influential of the 20th century.<\/p>\n

Tobias Ostrander, a curator of Frida: The Making of an Icon, which opens in June, said the difficulties securing loans were part of the reason the gallery had \u201cslightly\u201d fewer Kahlo paintings than two decades ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn general the [36] works were very specifically chosen to address certain themes but you know, there are ones we have tried for that people won\u2019t loan,\u201d Ostrander said. \u201cMadonna is someone who did loan in 2005 but won\u2019t loan now, for example.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Still<\/p>\n

Frida Kahlo, Still Life (I Belong to Samuel Fastlich), 1951<\/p>\n

PRIVATE COLLECTION<\/p>\n

There had been hopes that Kahlo\u2019s record-breaking self-portrait<\/a>, which was sold for \u00a341.8 million in November, would be part of the exhibition. Ostrander said Tate was still trying to secure a loan of El sue\u00f1o (La cama) from the artwork\u2019s unidentified buyer but admitted it was \u201cunlikely\u201d.<\/p>\n

Catherine Wood, Tate Modern\u2019s chief curator, said in 2005 it had been \u201cquite early\u201d to give Kahlo a full retrospective, adding that this year\u2019s exhibition was more focused on how the Mexican artist had \u201cshaped the canon\u201d for future generations.<\/p>\n

Scores of works by about 80 artists influenced by Kahlo are due to be displayed alongside many of the Mexican artist\u2019s most acclaimed pieces, including Untitled (Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird) and Self-Portrait in a Velvet Dress.<\/p>\n

\"Illustration<\/p>\n

Frida Kahlo\u2019s Untitled (Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird), 1940<\/p>\n

NICKOLAS MURAY COLLECTION OF MEXICAN ART<\/p>\n

Wood said the exhibition would trace how Kahlo rose to become the \u201cglobal phenomenon that she is today\u201d, adding: \u201cWhen we showed her she was one of the relatively few female artists who were being shown in museums and entering the pretty much all-male canon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very interesting at this point to look at how she has shaped the canon for future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 The scandal of the missing Frida Kahlo masterpieces<\/a><\/p>\n

Kahlo, who died in 1954 aged 47, was relatively unknown during her lifetime and often in the shadow of her husband and fellow artist, Diego Rivera. Until the 1990s, the record price for one of her works at auction was under $500,000.<\/p>\n

Interest in Kahlo was turbo-charged this century, perhaps helped by a biopic in 2002 starring Salma Hayek, with her self-portraits in particular increasingly drawing the attention of institutions and collectors.<\/p>\n

\"Frida<\/p>\n

Frida Kahlo photographed by Julien Levy in 1938<\/p>\n

COURTESY PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART<\/p>\n

Buying or securing the loan of a Kahlo masterpiece is further complicated by Mexico\u2019s refusal to allow any of her artworks to be exported without authorisation.<\/p>\n

However, there is plenty of Kahlo merchandise to be bought. One section of Tate Modern\u2019s exhibition will focus on \u201cFridamania\u201d and the artist\u2019s \u201ctransformation into a global brand\u201d.<\/p>\n

More than 200 objects \u201cgenerated by the mass-market production of Frida Kahlo merchandise\u201d \u2014 which has seen her image appear on thousands of items from period pads to Tequila bottles \u2014 will also be on display.<\/p>\n

\"Illustration<\/p>\n

Frida Kahlo, Memory (The Heart), 1937<\/p>\n

PRIVATE COLLECTION<\/p>\n

Ostrander said while Kahlo was a communist \u2014 one of her many affairs was with Leon Trotsky \u2014 the artist was \u201cclear about her image being a product or having an exchange value\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne forgets that she was producing these self-portraits to sell,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The curator said the exhibition would be \u201cself-conscious about the idea of a blockbuster, it will look critically at why we are so obsessed with Frida, what are we buying, what does she symbolise\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIt will be interesting because that Fridamania section will be right next to the [Tate Modern] shop.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Frida Kahlo may be helping to write women into art history, but her popularity has made it hard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-243231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}