Has commercialisation of Freda Kahlo’s image undermined her artistry?

A new Freda Kahlo exhibition entitled “Feda Kahlo: The Making of an Icon” is open at Tate Modern. It follows her life as an unknown Mexican woman to her status now as one of the world’s best known female artists. Her current fame is described as “Fredamania” in the exhibition which opens with one of her most famous paintings: “Self-portrait with thorn necklace and hummingbird” (1940) and concludes with her image portrayed on many commercial merchandise items on sale today.

How did Freda Kahlo become so popular as an artist?

How did Freda Kahlo become so popular as an artist? The answer perhaps lies in the fact that as a woman she survived adversity to prove herself as a respected woman artist and her life story still resonates with many women today.

When Kahlo was six she contracted polio which left her with a withered and short right leg. For support she required a prosthetic and chose to wear a platformed shoe to hide her otherwise asymmetric gait. At the age of 18 she was involved in a near fatal road traffic collision in which her spine was severely damaged and as a result she had to wear a brace and corset to retain an upright posture for the rest of her life. She was always in constant pain.

To camouflage her injuries, she took to wearing long skirts and dresses

To camouflage her injuries, she took to wearing long skirts and dresses, adopting the traditional “Tehuana” style of dress which was worn by the indigenous Zapotec women from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico. Her mother was from this region, and this may have inspired her to adopt this very distinctive, colourful garb. It eventually became her signature attire that she wore constantly and appeared in many of her paintings.

Freda Kahlo photographed in 1932

It is possible that because of her restricted pedestrian movement and her solitude she chose to paint self-portraits using a mirror to reflect her image. In her lifetime Kahlo composed 55 self-portraits and each one captures her unique style of artistry. Her own identity, which forms much of her work, became easily identifiable and recognised as that of Freda Kahlo. At first her art was a form of therapy for her, then later it became a symbolic metaphor of her intense personal experiences.

In her lifetime Kahlo composed 55 self-portraits and each one captures her unique style of artistry

By all accounts Kahlo had a tempestuous relationship with her fellow artist husband, Diego Rivera, who she divorced once and remarried soon after. It is also widely believed that she had various affairs with other men and women, garnering her the reputation of a woman leading a hedonistic, flamboyant and bohemian lifestyle.

Kahlo’s rise to fame from an unknown to an internationally recognised artist was slow

Kahlo’s rise to fame from an unknown to an international recognised artist was slow. She was a disabled, female artist seeking her place in a male dominated art world in the 1930’s and 1940’s. It was not until after her death in 1954 at the age of 47 did she and her work become internationally recognised even though her works had been previously shown in exhibitions in Mexico and the USA.

A year before her death in 1953 five of her paintings appeared at the Tate Gallery in London in an exhibition of Mexican art. In the late 1960’s she was recognised by the Chicano Art Movement as an artist to celebrate, along with other Mexican American artists at the time. This notoriety propelled her and her work forward and led her to be adopted as a celebrated female artist by feminists in the 1970’s who wished to challenge the patriarchal dominance of art at the time.

In 1983 Kahlo’s life and impact on art and culture was told in a book written by Hayden Herrera titled: “Freda: A biography of Freda Kahlo”. This book stirred again the emerging interest in Kahlo’s work and brought her further publicity and attention. The book was later adapted into the biopic “Freda” in 2002 with Salma Hayek in the lead role.

Freda Kahlo has a fan base predominantly made up of women, the LGBTQ+ community and the disabled

Since then, other publications, talks and films have appeared with Freda Kahlo as their subject matter and there have been exhibitions of her work, most notably by the V&A London, which have preceded the current one at Tate Modern. One might say a seal of approval of her commercial worth was established when her self-portrait piece of 1940, “El sueňo/La cama” depicting Kahlo asleep on a floating canopy bed, sold for $54.7 million at Sotherby’s, New York in 2025. It is the most expensive female artwork in history.

Freda Kahlo has a fan base predominantly made up of women, the LGBTQ+ community and the disabled. For this dedicated group of followers, she represents feminism, queerness, gender fluidity, body positive and anti-ableism resilience and is a fashion icon too! It is not surprising then that her image sells commercial products.

Freda Kahlo's image on a coffee mug

Whether commercialism in any way demeans the integrity of her work is open for debate. Does her fame as a female icon displace appreciation of her art?  Some say that fashion is fickle and Kahlo’s day as a modern popular artist will one day be numbered; new artists will emerge to replace her in popularity. These doubts are negated by the fact that she is now such an indelible figure in the world of art, that surely she will always remain as one of the greats.

“Freda Kahlo: The Making of an Icon” exhibition is on at Tate Modern until the 3^rd of January 2027

By our Art and culture correspondent