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Local News

"The World of Frida" opening at Grace Hudson Museum

Bedford Gallery, Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek
"All This Madness," Barbara Johansen Newman, acrylic on wood.

July 7, 2020 — The Grace Hudson Museum is scheduled to reopen on Wednesday, July 8, after being shut down since March 18.

The new show, which was originally going to be on display for twelve weeks, is The World of Frida, a 69-piece homage to Mexican Surrealist Frida Kahlo. Director David Burton says admission will be free for the month of July, and only thirty people (wearing masks) will be allowed inside at any one time. The bathrooms will be closed, and there are no interactive features to the display this time. 

But with images ranging from silly to reverential, in mediums that span the spectrum from bell jar to silk kimono embroidery, there is plenty of variety. 

Burton said that, in spite of losing about 20% of the funds the museum gets from the City of Ukiah, the staff, including himself, remained intact, though most worked from home. Much of directing a museum involves planning for the future, which, of course, means knowing what will be timely years from now. 

That’s not a problem for Frida Kahlo, who’s so iconic she’s simultaneously immune to anachronism and available to everyone, no matter who they are or what their cause is. Artists of every age, race, and gender have painted Kahlo as themselves, a beloved pitbull, or in one case, a cactus flower, symbolizing fleeting beauty.

 

Local News