Depictions of Frida Kahlo are popping up almost everywhere in retail, from t-shirts and sneakers to perfume and tequila brands, all of which resemble the famous Mexican artist. Now the commercialization of Kahlo has expanded into the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), in a heavily criticized publicity stunt.
Martin Mobarak, a Mexican-American tech entrepreneur, claims he burned an original Frida Kahlo drawing at a Miami party in July in an attempt to draw attention to his launch of 10,000 NFTs depicting Kahlo’s artwork.
In a video describing the event, Mobarak sets the drawing on fire in an oversized martini glass, surrounded by partygoers, flamethrowers and a mariachi band.
“The painting was permanently transferred to the Metaverse,” says a website dedicated to Mobarak’s NFT work, which claims the artwork in question is valued at $10 million. The NFT sale is supposed to benefit charities such as the Autism Society and the Children’s Craniofacial Association, according to Mobarak’s website.
One of the institutions listed as a grantee, Mexico City’s Palace of Fine Arts, refuses to accept income from Mobarak, according to a press release from Mexico’s National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature. The organization also announced an investigation into the broken Kahlo piece. “In Mexico, the deliberate destruction of an artistic monument constitutes a crime under the Federal Law on Archaeological, Artistic and Historic Monuments and Zones,” the press release said, adding that the authenticity of the burned artwork has yet to be confirmed.
Questions of authenticity surround the drawing
The drawing in question, with title Fantasmones Siniestros (Creepy ghosts), comes from one of Kahlo’s diaries. Mobarak claims to have had the piece authenticated in July by curator Andres Siegal.
“The question here is whether he just copied the drawing and burned it,” said James Oles, a lecturer specializing in Latin American art at Wellesley College. If Mobarak tries to raise money on a fake artwork, he could potentially be a victim of fraud, he said.
“But whatever he has planned, he hit the lottery in terms of hits and publicity. For him it doesn’t matter if it’s real or not,” said Oles, who described Mobarak’s fiery party and NFT collection as part of the hyper-commercialization of Kahlo .
However, burning her drawings takes it to a new level. “Deliberate destruction of art is a very, very rare thing,” Oles said. While some artists destroy their own artworks, such as English artist Damien Hirst’s recent experiment in which he burned artworks to replace them with NFTs, there are few examples of the targeted destruction of famous works of art.
And Mobarak’s use of NFTs, which have recently seen a drastic drop in trading volume, adds to the confusion, according to Oles. “Why not just donate the drawing to charity and sell it at auction?” he said. “It’s all a bit tacky, and actually a lot of the commercialization of Frida Kahlo is tacky and pathetic and sad.”
