Artist — or brand? How Frida Kahlo’s family lost control - The Sunday Story

艺术家——抑或品牌?弗里达·卡罗家族如何失去控制 - 周日故事

The Story

2026-03-08

35 分钟
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Thirty years after her death, Frida Kahlo went from relative obscurity to one of the most famous female artists on the planet. Now, her image has been used on everything from watches, scented candles, clothes, sanitary pads, and even Barbie dolls. But how did the communist icon become the face of a million dollar enterprise? At the centre of the story is a Kahlo family divided. Should her image reflect her artistic treasures or a global brand? Our listener survey is live - find it here. This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.com/thestory Guest: Blanca Schofield, assistant culture and books editor for both The Times and The Sunday Times. Host: Rosie Wright. Producer: Dave Creasey. We want to hear from you - email: thestory@thetimes.com Read more: Artist — or brand? How Frida Kahlo’s family lost control Photo: FridaMoji/Getty Images. This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  • From The Times and The Sunday Times, this is the story on Sunday.

  • I'm Rosie Wright.

  • Here we have a woman lying asleep in her bed, covered in a yellow blanket with greenery around her.

  • And the bed is kind of floating in the sky.

  • When the dream of the bed was painted in 1940, it gathered very little attention.

  • And the most interesting and alarming thing about the bed is that on top of the four poster is a skeleton also lying down,

  • wrestling against some pillows.

  • Back then,

  • almost no one out of Mexico knew of the artist who painted this picture of a skeleton and a woman on a bed.

  • Often,

  • you see Frida Kahlo with her hair tied up beautifully in a chignon and an emphasis on her face and on her monobrow and on her dress.

  • But in this painting, she is lying down in a white, presumably nightgown with her hair down, asleep.

  • Well, in November last year, that painting sold for just over 40 million pounds.

  • Its value is a sign of just how far Frida Kahlo's work has come since she died in 1954.

  • This is The Dream Brackets the Bed, which in Spanish is El Sueno Brackets La Cama,

  • which was painted in 1940 by Frida Kahlo during a really turbulent time in her life

  • because it followed her divorce from her husband,

  • Diego Rivera, and also the assassination of Her former lover, the Russian revolutionary, Trotsky.

  • Her art goes way beyond the canvas now.

  • I expect you know her face, even if actually you don't know who she was.