The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, has released a comprehensive exhibition catalogue for 'Frida: The Making of an Icon,' which investigates the posthumous transformation of Frida Kahlo from a niche painter into a global cultural phenomenon. The publication features eleven scholarly essays that deconstruct the various identities attributed to Kahlo—from the political activist and feminist martyr to the disabled artist—while debunking common myths regarding her relationship with Surrealism and her husband, Diego Rivera.
This analysis is significant because it moves beyond the biographical 'Fridamania' to examine how different social movements, particularly Chicano/a artists and 1970s feminists, have appropriated and reshaped Kahlo’s image. By addressing complex issues of cultural appropriation, sartorial politics, and the 'browning' of her identity, the catalogue provides a critical historiographical framework for understanding how Kahlo’s persona became one of the most commercially and politically potent icons of the modern era.