Frida Kahlo Exhibition

So I went to Philadelphia on Sunday to check out the last day of the Frida Kahlo Exhibit. I had been trying to get down to this exhibit since I had found out about it on the plane ride back from Panama. Due to the weekends being packed with different events happening, such as Mother's Day and my exhibition, I just haven't been able to make it down there until last minute, where I was stomping my feet if I wasn't going to be able to go.

I had spoke with my neighbors who were able to go to the show an earlier weekend and they had told me that it was insanely packed. They didn't exaggerate. It was mobbed. Which is great to see that Frida was getting that exposure, but DAMN! I had to buy tickets for a specific time slot. When we got there, we had to que up with everyone. Of course we were stuck right near the crazy woman. VERY crazy. I was talking to my friend about our insane hairdresser and the stories from my haircut the day before. Then the crazy lady butts her nose in and says- Where is this! I want to go! Needless to say, she is a bit wacky and kept talking to us through out the exhibition.

You enter the exhibition to a Fridha with Monkey painting. The next couple rooms are photos from Frida's personal collection. This room we got accosted by the crazy lady again. Then the rest of the rooms had more paintings. By then the crazy lady had no shoes and was yelling that she wanted everyone to leave so she could sit in front of the painting and stare for hours. yep, leave it to me to find the nut jobs.

I enjoyed the exhibition, but wanted more paintings. I wanted the rooms to be less crowded. i wanted to be like the crazy person and stare at the work without someone breathing over my shoulder. Part of the problem, if you ask me is those damn audio tour things. They make people cluster around a piece for an extended period, which bottlenecks the crowd. I did like how they showed other examples of Mexican art to inform the visitor of the reasons why she painted certain paintings a specific way, but I also felt like it was a bit of filler... like that could have been used for more work. And then you are filtered to the giant gift shop at the end that was selling everything from clay pots, to Mexican style clothes, to books and posters, to jewelry. It was a bit insane.

After checking out the exhibit, we walked around the museum and saw some great contemporary stuff, which I will cover in the next post. All in all, i thought the exhibition was good and was pleased that I could FINALLY see it.