Frida Kahlo make-up: too beautiful and too capitalist?
An American retail chain has launched a make-up palette inspired by the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. The controversy was not long in coming.
The Frida Kahlo Foundation has forged a partnership with US retail chain Ulta Beauty. The result? A make-up palette. Among other things, it should make it possible to recreate the Mexican artist's iconic eyebrow.
Source: Guillermo Kahlo, Wikimedia Commons
Nine products, one look
The series includes nine products. As well as a foundation and bronzer, the collection also features a lipstick and brush set, as well as the Brow Master Palette
The Brow Master Palette aims to highlight the eyebrow bone. To this is added a wax to tame and set the eyebrows. In this way, the Foundation and Ulta are subtly sending out a message: there's no shame in having a unibrow.
The news portal Artnet contradicts this implication. Author Sarah Cascone certainly agrees with the pro-monosoucil argument, but finds that Ulta takes away from the artist's distinctive look by embellishing the images on the make-up packaging.
As a counter-argument, Ulta and the Foundation published the photo of Kahlo, on which the packaging is based.
The magazine Quartzy criticises the lucrative side of make-up. According to author Sangeeta Sing-Kurtz, Frida Kahlo was anti-capitalist. Kahlo's biography confirms this. She was a member of the Communist Party in the 1920s and painted herself next to a image of Stalin.
Twentieth-century icon
Frida Kahlo would have been 112 in 2019. The Mexican created a fixed place for herself in the cultural memory of the 20th century with paintings - often self-portraits with a courage to depict ugliness - that blended South American styles from centuries past with modern European influences.
In her portraits she has dealt with the themes such as identity, post-colonialism, gender, class and race. She has managed to make global commentaries while always keeping an eye on Mexican society.
At the age of 18, in 1925 Frida Kahlo was on a bus that had an accident. Unlike other passengers, she survived, but the accident shattered her dream of becoming a doctor. With two broken legs, a billed collarbone and a metal bar that pierced her hip, Kahlo spent two months in hospital. She suffered for the rest of her life.
In recent years, Frida Kahlo has gone from icon to publicity figure. As well as Ulta, Vans has released shoes featuring her artwork. Frida Kahlo is a Barbie and a Emoji in the Snapchat app (Android and Apple iOS).
The palette is available online at Ulta Beauty or, at eBay.
