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Hyperallergic

Hyperallergic

Sensitive to Art & its Discontents

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Barbie

Posted inArt

Barbie’s Pink World Order

Avatar photo by Rea McNamara January 9, 2023January 9, 2023

Entering World of Barbie felt like stepping through Oz, but the Oz that is Barbie: a James Turrell Ganzfeld-like diffusion of hyper-femme magenta pink.

Posted inOpinion

Barbie’s Back, as Basquiat?

Avatar photo by Hrag Vartanian May 1, 2020May 1, 2020

The latest from Mattel suggests another 20th-century artist has become just a recognizable style easily packaged for kids.

The Frida Kahlo Barbie (photo courtesy Mattel)
Posted inNews

After Frida Kahlo Barbie Debacle, Licensing Company Sues Artist’s Relative

Avatar photo by Benjamin Sutton May 9, 2018

The Frida Kahlo Corporation is suing the artist’s great niece, claiming she is falsely presenting herself as someone who has the power to grant licensing permits for Kahlo’s name and image.

Left: Frida Kahlo in 1932 (photo by Guillermo Kahlo, courtesy Sotheby's, via Wikimedia Commons); right: the Frida Kahlo Barbie doll (courtesy Mattel)
Posted inIn Brief

Judge in Mexico Blocks Sales of the New Frida Kahlo Barbie

Avatar photo by Benjamin Sutton April 20, 2018

A temporary injunction has been issued against marketing or selling Mattel’s doll of the famous Surrealist artist until a dispute over rights to her image is resolved.

Posted inArt

160 Years Before the Frida Kahlo Barbie, a Rosa Bonheur Doll Celebrated a Queer Woman Painter

Avatar photo by Karen Chernick March 22, 2018March 22, 2018

Victorian-era American girls loved the porcelain-faced version of Bonheur, which by the 1860s was a hit.

Posted inNews

Toymaker Omits Frida Kahlo’s Iconic Unibrow in New Barbie Doll

by Elena Goukassian March 9, 2018March 9, 2018

While the Frida Kahlo Corporation sanctioned the doll, the artist’s great-niece isn’t happy with the appearance of the toy.

Posted inIn Brief

A New Barbie Doll Channels Andy Warhol

by Laura C. Mallonee December 3, 2015December 9, 2015

Leave it to Mattel, the maker of the Barbie doll, to fulfill Andy Warhol’s famous wish to be plastic.

Posted inNews

No False I-Dolls: Religious Barbie Show Ken’t Go On

by Laura C. Mallonee October 13, 2014

Two Argentinian artists are facing vehement criticism for creating Barbie dolls inspired by religious figures, and the Buenos Aires gallery planning to exhibit them has cancelled the show ahead of its opening.

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Hyperallergic is a forum for serious, playful, and radical thinking about art in the world today. Founded in 2009, Hyperallergic is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York.

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