Frida Kahlo's commercialization has gone "too far" says great-niece Cristina Kahlo
23 February 2026
24/02/2026 In an interview with the Times of London last week, another great-niece of the artist, Cristina Kahlo, expressed her conflicting opinions about how much Kahlo has been publicized over the last few decades, ever since Hayden Herrera's 1983 biography of the artist was published.
“It’s been a double-edged sword,” Cristina Kahlo told the paper. “On the one hand, commercialisation means Frida Kahlo’s image is better known. But it’s better known in the wrong light sometimes because if you don’t know Frida Kahlo’s story then you are buying a figure you really don’t know anything about. It’s an image, nothing more. I think this in some way distorts what she really was: a great artist.”
For instance, the Frida Kahlo Corporation (FKC), established in 2004 by Kahlo's niece Isolda Pinedo Kahlo and great-niece María Cristina Romeo Pinedo, just last month declared that it had approved the licensing for the 14-story apartment complex in Miami called the Frida Kahlo Wynwood Residences, which features a large mural of her face on its side. A link to an Amazon store selling Kahlo memorabilia can also be found on the FKC website.
Furthermore, the FKC was established in collaboration with Carlos Dorado, a Venezuelan businessman who holds 51 percent of the company and has registered numerous trademarks associated with Kahlo.
"Frida: The Making of an Icon" is presently on display at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and will go to Tate Modern in London in June. About 30 of Kahlo's pieces are on display at the MFA Houston, along with 120 additional pieces by five generations of artists who have been influenced by her. With a gallery devoted to her status as a pop-culture figure, the exhibition specifically examines "the artist's transformation from a relatively unknown local painter to a universal icon and global brand."
taken from The Artnews article available at the link below.
