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I finally saw the Frida Kahlo exhibition at the Art Institute this weekend. It's a bit of a stretch to call it a Frida Khalo exhibition, though. Because, as the title of the exhibition, says it's about Frida Khalo and Mary Reynolds, the latter of which I had never heard of before. Frida stayed with Mary Reynolds and Marcel Duchamp in Paris in 1939 for a little over a month.
The Art Institute of Chicago has exactly and precisely zero holdings of any art by Frida Kahlo at all, which has always felt like a gaping hole in this encyclopedic museum's collection. But the Art Institute has a whole lot of Mary Reynold's work. She was a bookbinder, and the AIC has a lot of her interesting, one off book bindings of surrealist books.
One review of the exhibition said that art museums do too much of the blockbuster type show, and not enough of small, focused, academic exhibitions. And that's certainly what this exhibition is meant to be, but the Art Institute was quite aware that it was going to be a blockbuster, as well. I actually went to the Art Institute for the member opening hours because, otherwise, this exhibition is absolutely jammed. Most of the time, in order to get in, you have to join the virtual queue and then stand in a real life queue.
I suspect people are expecting to see a lot of work by Frida Kahlo, which you can't usually do in Chicago. But this exhibition only has seven of her paintings! There are photographs of her, and two letters written by her, in English, to an American boyfriend of hers, but I don't go to art museums to read letters.
One interesting thing about Khalo is that her work isn't really improved upon by seeing it in person. Normally, I think that reproductions of work are a sorry excuse for seeing it in person. But the super large blown up posters of these works all around the city, and outside the exhibition in the Art Institute, are just as striking, or more striking, than the mostly tiny little portraits in person.
In addition to featuring seven works by Frida Kahlo and quite a lot of books bound by Mary Reynolds, this exhibition features work by Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray and other surrealists.
I'm glad I went to the Art Institute a bit early to see this exhibition, but don't think it's worth a special visit to the AIC to see this exhibition. And it's especially not worth it to wait in the super long line.
The Art Institute of Chicago has exactly and precisely zero holdings of any art by Frida Kahlo at all, which has always felt like a gaping hole in this encyclopedic museum's collection. But the Art Institute has a whole lot of Mary Reynold's work. She was a bookbinder, and the AIC has a lot of her interesting, one off book bindings of surrealist books.
One review of the exhibition said that art museums do too much of the blockbuster type show, and not enough of small, focused, academic exhibitions. And that's certainly what this exhibition is meant to be, but the Art Institute was quite aware that it was going to be a blockbuster, as well. I actually went to the Art Institute for the member opening hours because, otherwise, this exhibition is absolutely jammed. Most of the time, in order to get in, you have to join the virtual queue and then stand in a real life queue.
I suspect people are expecting to see a lot of work by Frida Kahlo, which you can't usually do in Chicago. But this exhibition only has seven of her paintings! There are photographs of her, and two letters written by her, in English, to an American boyfriend of hers, but I don't go to art museums to read letters.
One interesting thing about Khalo is that her work isn't really improved upon by seeing it in person. Normally, I think that reproductions of work are a sorry excuse for seeing it in person. But the super large blown up posters of these works all around the city, and outside the exhibition in the Art Institute, are just as striking, or more striking, than the mostly tiny little portraits in person.
In addition to featuring seven works by Frida Kahlo and quite a lot of books bound by Mary Reynolds, this exhibition features work by Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray and other surrealists.
I'm glad I went to the Art Institute a bit early to see this exhibition, but don't think it's worth a special visit to the AIC to see this exhibition. And it's especially not worth it to wait in the super long line.
