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In her own time, Frida Kahlo (Editorial, 26 June) did not enjoy the financial success that her so-called legacy does now. There’s a message there. Perhaps we should be rethinking how we invest in art and artists. The current Tate Modern exhibition hosts 30 Kahlo works and is padded out with more than 200 artworks by others.

Perhaps her spin-off has some good, but given that minimal visitors will know anything about Mexican art, to enable them to contextualise her canon, arguably we might ask if hosting Kahlo exhibitions ad nauseam (currently showing in London, New York and Italy) makes her legacy more significant or simply encourages more cushion covers to be printed.

The Tate Modern’s blockbuster will bolster its budget, but do little for art history. Hopefully some of the profits will be invested into exhibitions and acquisitions of art by those who have been left behind by the Kahlomania that our biggest, and supposedly trailblazing, art museums continue to encourage. Kerching Kahlo.
Dr Penelope Jackson
Matua, Tauranga, New Zealand

• Thank you for your editorial about Frida Kahlo, which raises an evergreen question about the use of her image for commercial purposes. As you intimate in the article, we cannot know what Frida would have made of the mass commodification of her image, but given that she was a staunch communist, I think we can all make an informed guess.

You write of a thin line between canonisation and commercialisation. However, in this debate what we often forget to talk about is what level of respect and dignity do we offer this artist, as a society, when we have allowed her face to be used for marketing purposes of all kinds? Appreciation for her art, like for Marilyn Monroe’s (who you also write about in your piece), certainly does not seem to guarantee that this respect is always granted, or that this dignity is properly recognised. Rejecting the “Barbified” version of Frida may be a first step in the right direction.
Francesca Vaghi
Bergen, Norway

• Having just read your editorial, I felt guilty when I changed my calendar for next week, as it is an image by Frida Kahlo. However, my granddaughter recognises these images and the artist. Surely, widening the knowledge and appreciation of her art, life and politics, through what some may consider to be “kitsch”, is a good thing? By the way, my Frida Kahlo earrings arrive this week. More guilt.
Chris Walters
Buxton, Derbyshire

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