The Branding of Frida Kahlo | Hacker News Reader

The Branding of Frida Kahlo

newrepublic.com

31 pointsprismatic16 comments

I recently killed an afternoon in Miami by visiting Calle Ocho in Little Havana and was bemused by the vast number of Kahlo portraits in the local shops and galleries, given that she was (A) Mexican, not Cuban; and (B) only stopped from enthusiastically supporting Castro’s revolution by dint of dying a few years before it happened. Frida Kahlo juxtaposed with anti-Communist messaging makes for an unusual historical combination.

Is it just me, or is all high art success largely about branding?

It’s definitely not just you. Look at someone like Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Banksy, and Damien Hirst. It’s about acting a part, branding, connections, and in some ideal cases talent and originality can even play a role.

So true, I remember Damien Hirst talking about this openly. Jeff Koons and Cindy Sherman also speak to this.

Warhol and Hirst's work were both commentaries on this. As were Christo and Jeanne-Claude's, though theirs focused a little more on the role the "self."

I mean, they’re commentaries that also just happen to make them spectacularly wealthy.

Sort of by definition--at least for success in their lifetime.

Productivity can also play a role. A lot of legitimately great artists also have/had workshops to help them produce more and also reuse/rework work for a lot of different purposes. Consider Rodin and Chihuly for example.

Sort of by definition--at least for success in their lifetime.

Seems to me that this also applies posthumously, but there are other people doing the branding for them.

Fair to a degree. But posthumously their work and their lived life is what it was. Branding tends to imply a more conscious effort to actively create a contemporary following.

Branding tends to imply a more conscious effort to actively create a contemporary following.

I often see artists "discovered" by some curator or some other artist, then brought to the attention of the art world. The ones I'm aware of have traveling exhibits hitting major museums. There is money involved in this. There is a "conscious effort to actively create a contemporary following," in this as well. In a way, much of human culture, period, is tied up in branding and marketing. Even politics, which is a scary thought.

Agreed. Honestly I find that success in most fields is largely about branding or dumb luck. The one notable exception is the field where I found success!

They are just the ones you remember.

That's a good portion of it. Of course, you can do all the branding you want and be as productive as you want and have it fail because you aren't in the right circle of folks to make your career take of. Basically all successful artists in the 20th century have had this last bit.

Creativity, productivity, hard work, or mastering something doesn't get you very far.

Of course, you can do all the branding you want and be as productive as you want and have it fail because you aren't in the right circle of folks to make your career take off.

Isn't that part of the whole package?

I find it amusing that branding, formerly reserved for cattle, is so enthusiastically embraced by the people upon whom it is pushed.

"Oh, yes, I'd love to wear someone else's initials or sigil!"

I'm not sure when it was reserved for cattle, even if it has changed forms over the years. Of course, during some points in time, your clothing choices were limited by law - but even within that, there were brands. Usually modeled by royalty or politicians or other famous folks were wearing.

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