Frida Kahlo Exits Philadelphia for San Francisco

Do not ever consider going to a "blockbuster" art show on the last day. The crowds, the lines, the time. Not worth it...uummmm, well, not every time.

Tickets were timed for entry, however, the museum still let in too many people at once, but since it was the end of the show, certainly “something” for viewers “rather than nothing” was welcomed.

On the final day of the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art I took the Chinatown bus (another story) from DC to see Frida. A great, but it seemed, a small, show. Maybe the crowds and the jamming in front of each canvas distorted my impression: that and the tiny size of many of the paintings. Reading about the art beforehand in Hayden Herrera’s splendid biography, Frida, I expected bigger canvasses because they do become, at least to this reader, "bigger than life," like magnets pulling my heartstrings.

With hundreds viewing the paintings in the crowded galleries, it was impossible to stand back and view them, but given the small size of most, it would not have been productive. If you waited, you could get up close which was necessary to see many of the details.


The paintings depict Frida’s short, sad but quite passionate life in chronological arrangement. The largest, "Two Fridas," is huge in comparison and one she painted for a competition. One of the most fascinating, “Suicide of Dorothy Hale," has a gruesome history which Ms. Herrera explains from a description by Claire Booth Luce who commissioned it.

Other notables in the exhibit: "Henry Ford Hospital," "The Broken Column," "Frida and Diego Rivera," "A Few Small Nips," "My Nurse and I," "The Dream," "Without Hope," "Sun and Life," "The Love Embrace of the Universe."

Many small intimate family photographs of Frida and her husband twice, Diego Rivera, which have never been exhibited or published are displayed.

The exhibit includes between 40 and 50 paintings, many self portraits, but where was the "Trotsky" self-portrait owned by the National Museum of Women in the Arts? Did I miss it? The exhibit is the first in the U.S. of Frida Kahlo's art in 15 years.

At the end of the show, guests were “dumped” into a mad Frida retail shop, complete with almost everything one could imagine about, by, and "of" Frida including clothes. The clothes! Magnifico! Many, full length, and all, colorful and stylish in keeping with the star of the show. (Who shares the proceeds with the museum?) Nothing seemed exorbitantly priced. Long lines at the cashiers’ gave one reason not to purchase, especially for those in a hurry.

Anyway, next stop: The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art from June 14 - September 18.

Side bar: I am in love with Philadelphia: The magnificent fountains, the statuary, the Phlash! Bus, the not-to-missed Reading Terminal Market ! Yes, even to return on the smelly, grungy, dirty Chinatown bus which lived up to its horrible reputation with its repugnant mobile restroom and dirty, unkempt waiting rooms with barking Chinese operators who speak, likely, deliberately, incomprehensible English, but the price ($28 RT) and the time (2.5 hours, almost on schedule) are right. Even without Frida, Philadelphia is too good to miss, yes, even on the Chinatown bus.