A flood of fake Fridas: snark o’ the week
(Latin American Herald-Tribune):
Representatives of the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Trust filed a criminal suit on Tuesday for the forgery of 1,200 Kahlo works of art that appear in two books recently published in Mexico and the United States.
“Most of them appear not to be by the artist, because connoisseurs of the artist’s works have said so,” attorney Jose Luis Perez Arredondo told reporters.
…
The complaint was filed at the Attorney General’s Office, where members of the press met with experts on the artist’s work and personnel of the Anahuacalli Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo museums.
Perez Arredondo said that the trust’s technical committee decided to file the complaint after hearing the opinion of several experts on the supposed work of Frida reproduced in the publications “Finding Frida Kahlo” and “El Laberinto de Frida: Muerte, Dolor y Ambivalencia” (Frida’s Labyrinth: Death, Pain and Ambivalence) containing illustrated letters, drawings and personal notes.
“We’re not making personal accusations nor are we judging conduct. That is the subject of the lawsuit,” the lawyer said.
At the end of last month, Mexican antique dealers Carlos Noloya and Leticia Fernandez presented the 1,200 works as authentic, while admitting that they were very different from other pictorial works left by the artist…
Kahlo’s works are — for reasons unfathomable to me — considered a national artistic monument (to Kitschitlacali, the God of Self-Indulgence?), and — if genuine — cannot be sold abroad. No problem. It’s easy enough to create fake Kahlos… just paint Kahlo’s face, toss in a few eccentric cultural reference… and gouge your eyes out…
(Trek Thunder Kelly, The Suicide of Frida Kahlo, 2004; acrylic on canvas; 72″ x 60)
mexfiles.net 
Yeah, I don’t get Frida either. Perhaps one of a few Latinas who don’t.
Too narcissistic and self absorbed and way too many monkeys.
New: The Beautiful Frida: Tehuana huipiles, jewelry as Frida Kahlo painted them
Additional Tehuana blouses (huipiles), skirts and jewelry are exhibited in the Kunstmuseum Gehrke-Remund in Baden-Baden, Germany. Frida Kahlo, whose self-portraits represent over 40% of her work, painted herself with the clothes she used to wear. These were the blouses and skirts the women of the isthmus of Tehuantepec use to wear, these women are known to have strong and independent characters.
The Frida Kahlo exhibition now shows Tehuana blouses as Frida Kahlo painted them, earrings, stone and filigree necklaces, rings as she used to wear. The flower patterns on the Tehuana blouses are hand embroidered, the geometrical motives are hand woven.
One of the center pieces of the exhibition is the dress painted by Frida Kahlo in “Self-portrait dedicated to Leon Trotsky” (1937, oil on canvas, 87 x 70 cm).
Frida Kahlo has represented herself in a particularly seductive way in warm and soft colours: a salmon coloured full skirt, red blouse, and a rebozo (Mexican shawl) in light brown like the colour of the Russian army. The skirt and blouse now are exhibited and hang next to the painting.
The Tehuana huipiles, skirts, jewels are shown in addition to the permanent exhibition. With over 111 oil paintings (licensed replicas from: © Banco de México Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2008) in the exhibition, the Kustmuseum Gehrke-Remund in Baden-Baden shows the most complete collection of Frida Kahlo works worldwide.
Frida Kahlo as a young woman now in Kunstmuseum Gehrke-Remund, Baden-Baden
A private collector has given on loan to the Kunstmuseum Gehrke-Remund in Baden-Baden a painting “Portrait of Frida”. The painting reproduces a black and white with sepia tones photo of Frida Kahlo taken by her father, Guillermo Kahlo, on February 7th 1926 (7-II-1926).
The photo was taken five months after the almost fatal bus accident Frida Kahlo suffered on September 17th 1925. The painting “Portrait of Frida” based on such photo shows a 18 year old Frida wearing a Chinese silk dress, sitting in her parents’ sitting room, on her lap lie two books. It seems almost a miracle that Frida recovered so quickly from the accident which almost killed her and left her physically and emotionally marked for life.
Beyond the artistic value this painting, now in exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Gehrke-Remund, has a biographic meaning as it captures a young, serious Frida in the year when she started to paint intensely to express her pain and feelings.
The “Portrait of Frida”, 2009, oil on canvas, 82 x 115 cm, will be on exhibition in the Kunstmuseum till February 28 2010.
During this time, beside the painting “Portrait of Frida”, the Kustmuseum will exhibit a complete photo collection of Frida Kahlo documenting her life from when she was four year old, to her funeral in 1954.
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Six additional Frida Kahlo paintings, the whereabouts of some of which are unknown, join the exhibition.
WONDERFUL EXHIBITION. I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF MY VISIT.
Thank you for the chance to look at and to know very interesting information about a very talented and great artist Frida Kahlo.
Muchas gracias por el hermoso momentos con los fantasticos quadros de Frida Kahlo.
Muchos saludos desde Guadalajara, Mexico … orgullo por este museo.
Nos encanto mucho! Poder estar aqui a Baden-Baden y poder ver a Frida Kahlo.
Permanent Exhibition
The Exhibition:
Frida Kahlo “Pain and Passion”
Hand-painted by master artists licensed Replicas © Banco de México Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2008. What is a Replica….
The most complete Frida Kahlo oil paintings exhibition of all times.
Over 600 sqm (6000 sq feet) exhibition surface and over 100 of her paintings.
Frida Kahlo
The Mexican artist Frida Kahlo had a special relationship with Germany, her father was born in Germany and grew up in Baden-Baden. When she was 18 year old, she suffered a life threatening bus accident whose consequences marked her physically and emotionally for the rest of her life. Years later, Frida said: “I suffered two grave accidents in my life…One in which a streetcar knocked me down and the other was Diego.”.
At age of 22 Frida Kahlo married Diego Rivera, the most famous Mexican painter of her time, who was 21 years her senior.
Ten years later she separated from him, and at this point her most productive time as an artist began. One year after the divorce, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera married a second time. Frida Kahlo’s inner conflicts, the destructive power of her relationship with Diego Rivera, her miscarriages are all mirrored in her paintings. During her marriage to Rivera she took refuge in several lovers, alcohol, drugs and in her painting.
Frida Kahlo – Already a legend during her lifetime, today she is probably the most famous female painter of all times. Her life was extravagant and marked by suffering, passion and pain. Although her life was short and troubled, she has left us a unique collection of paintings. Her works describe the challenges, the passion, the love and contradictions of our times.
André Breton described her works as a “ribbon around a bomb”, she had the courage to describe herself and her life in the most colourful, realistic and – at the same time – poetic way.
Pablo Picasso wrote: “neither Rivera, Derain, nor I are able to paint a face like Frida Kahlo”. She was the master of self-portraits; in the exhibition, all the self-portraits of Frida Kahlo will be shown.
The Paintings and Exhibits
As most of Frida Kahlo’s works are spread around the world, and are in the hands of private collectors, the paintings in the Kunstmuseum Gehrke-Remund are licensed replicas from © Banco de México Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2008.
These unique replicas have been painted exclusively for the Kunstmuseum Gehrke-Remund by master artists, and can be found exclusively in the Kunstmuseum Gehrke-Remund in Baden-Baden. They are painted in the original size, with the original materials (oil on canvas, oil on wood/metal or glas), and in exactly the same style as Frida Kahlo painted them.
The Kunstmuseum Gehrke-Remund shows over 100 oil paintings, and this is the most complete Frida Kahlo exhibition of all times.
Our visitors will experience Frida Kahlo paintings and her life’s context.
In addition to her work, we will show clothes and jewelry. Moreover, we have recreated the garden of the Casa Azul (The blue house: the family house of Frida Kahlo) with its Aztec pyramid and pre-Columbian figures.
Information
Kunstmuseum Location:
Kunstmuseum Gehrke-Remund
Industrie Str. 9a, 76532 Baden-Baden, Germany
The Kunstmuseum is accessible with wheelschair.
Visits:
Monday through Sunday from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm
Admission:
15 Euro
Students, Seniors: 10 Euro
Groups as of 6 people, 10 Euro per person
Audio Guide: 5 Euro
Parking available in the nearby streets
Directions:
– from Baden-Baden downtown by car
– from the bus stop
– from the highwas A5
– from the train station
Administration:
Kunstmuseum Gehrke-Remund GmbH
Industrie Str. 9a
76532 Baden-Baden, Germany
info@Kunstmuseum-Gehrke-Remund.de
The Vision
The Vision of the Kunstmuseum Gehrke-Remund is to offer our visitors a cultural experience that covers all the senses, and an environment that touches not only the eyes of our visitors, but their minds, and above all their hearts.
Every decision we made in the creation of the museum was driven by two elements:
– respect for the visitors, and
– respect for the artists.
The Implementation
In the creation of the museum we have planned every step, every detail from the visitors point of view, and we are committed to continuous improvements to make the experience unique.
As far as the art works are concerned, we have invested considerable time and resources in reproducing the paintings, and displaying them in a context as loyal as possible to the reality of the artist.
The Kunstmuseum Gehrke-Remund strives to offer the visitors a complete view of the entire work of one artist, in this way it is possible to follow the development of the artist, to discover the different phases of his/her life: from lack of direction to new inspiration.
The Founders
The founders of the Kunstmuseum are Hans-Jürgen Gehrke and Dr. Mariella C. Remund. Both are art patrons, collectors, and passionate art historians.
Both have spent over 25 years in executive positions in multinational corporations and academic institutions in Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, USA, Spain, South America and China.
Personally she just freaks me out, i mean all of the bio’s on tell a the depressing story of how her life was a misery, and fair enough some of her pieces are actually quite good but going as far as not admitting that she not a surrealists? thats plain sad it quite obvious in a lot of her works, one thing i do happen to like is the attention to detal and colour.
malditos hijos de puta que no tienen ni el mas minimo respeto por esta mujer maravillosa como ustedes no sufrieron tanto cabrones , pero bueno no cabe duda que la gente ignorante se reproduce mas rapido que las que respetan a nombres importantes