Beginning Friday, June 25, the Cleve Carney Museum of Art and McAninch Arts Center at the College of DuPage will offer virtual tours of Frida Kahlo: Timeless, a one-of-a-kind, multifaceted exhibition of original artwork by iconic Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. Making the in-person exhibition accessible to remote audiences, on-demand individual tours are priced at $18 and provide in-depth curatorial commentary from curator Justin Witte and Executive Director Diana Martinez, offering intimate glimpses into the artist’s life and work. Group tours, led by museum docents and offering opportunities for lively discussions and questions, are available Monday – Friday at 10 a.m. or 2 p.m. for groups of up to 25 people ($250) and 26-50 people ($500).
On view now through Sept. 6, Frida Kahlo: Timeless is the most comprehensive presentation of Kahlo’s work displayed in the Chicago area in over 40 years. Visitors to the exhibition, both virtual and in-person, can also take advantage of a robust series of virtual programs focused on Kahlo’s life and legacy, freely available on the museum’s website (theccma.org/videos). Virtual talks feature renowned art historians, scholars and curators including Cesáreo Moreno, Chief Curator of the National Museum of Mexican Art and Julie Rodrigues Widholm, Director of the UC Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive.
The 26-piece collection, on loan from the Museo Dolores Olmedo, features an array of oil paintings and works on paper spanning the life of Kahlo, a Mexican artist foundational to the 20th century art historical canon. Best known for self-portraits highlighting themes of identity, politics, sexuality and death, Kahlo channeled her childhood and personal struggles into her art and became an iconic figure and symbol of female empowerment, individual courage and Mexican pride.
The exhibition includes pivotal pieces created throughout the artist’s life, including 19 oil paintings, representing over one-tenth of the total number of Kahlo paintings in existence. Works from Kahlo’s life follow a period when the artist was bedridden for months after surviving a life-altering bus accident at age 18 and span her lifetime, concluding with a work completed the year of her death.
The exhibition also features a multimedia timeline with replicas of notable objects from Kahlo’s life, over 100 photographic images, a Frida Kahlo-inspired garden and a children’s area.
Frida Kahlo: Timeless will be on view at the Cleve Carney Museum of Art, 425 Fawell Blvd., through Sept. 6, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday through Wednesday and 10 a.m.–10 p.m. Thursday.
For tickets or more information, visit www.Frida2021.org or call 630.942.4000.
About Frida Kahlo: Timeless
The exhibition, on view June 5 to Sept. 6, 2021, will be the largest Frida Kahlo exhibition in the Chicago area in more than 40 years, and is hosted by the Cleve Carney Museum of Art (CCMA) and the McAninch Arts Center (MAC) at the College of DuPage (COD). It will feature a 26-piece collection on loan from the Museo Dolores Olmedo as well as a multimedia timeline, 100+ photographic images from the artist’s life, a family-friendly children’s area and a Frida Kahlo inspired garden designed by Ball Horticultural Company, enabling museum-goers of all ages to grasp an understanding of Kahlo’s life and work through a variety of contexts. The exhibition and related programming are organized by Frida Kahlo: Timeless Executive Director Diana Martinez (Director of the McAninch Arts Center) in collaboration with Justin Witte, Frida Kahlo: Timeless Curator (CCMA Curator). For more information, visit www.Frida2021.org and on social media @CleveCarneyMuseumofArt.
The exhibition is presented by Bank of America and made possible by the support of Ball Horticultural Company, Wight & Company, Nicor, AeroMexico, The National Endowment for the Arts, DuPage Foundation, Illinois Office of Tourism the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity and the College of DuPage Foundation.
About the Cleve Carney Museum of Art
The late Cleve Carney provided a significant legacy gift to establish the Cleve Carney Art Gallery at College of DuPage. The gallery opened in February 2014 with its inaugural exhibition Selections from Cleve Carney’s Art Collection. In fall 2020, the gallery was expanded to a 2,500 square-foot museum. The Cleve Carney Museum of Art is scheduled to open in the summer 2021 with the highly anticipated Frida Kahlo: Timeless exhibition. The museum will maintain the standards set by the American Alliance of Museums. More information can be found at www.TheCCMA.org and on social media @CleveCarneyMuseumofArt.
About the MAC
The McAninch Arts Center at College of DuPage is located at 425 Fawell Blvd., 25 miles west of Chicago near I-88 and I-355. It houses three indoor performance spaces (the 780-seat proscenium Belushi Performance Hall; the 236-seat soft-thrust Playhouse Theatre; and the versatile black box Studio Theatre), the outdoor Lakeside Pavilion, plus the Cleve Carney Museum of Art and classrooms for the college’s academic programming. The MAC has presented theater, music, dance and visual art to more than 1.5 million people since its opening in 1986 and typically welcomes more than 100,000 patrons from the greater Chicago area to more than 230 performances each season.
The mission of the MAC is to foster enlightened educational and performance opportunities, which encourage artistic expression, establish a lasting relationship between people and art, and enrich the cultural vitality of the community. Visit www.AtTheMAC.org or www.facebook.com/AtTheMAC for more information.
Image Caption: Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait with Small Monkey, 1945 (Oil on masonite). Collection Museo Dolores Olmedo, Xochimilco, Mexico. © 2019 Banco de México, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico City, Mexico