Tacoma Art Museum Frida Kahlo Curriculum Guide for Teachers

Tacoma Art Museum presented Frida Kahlo: Images of an Icon photographic exhibition February 3 - June 10, 2007 and the adjacent exhibition Northwest Visions of Frida Kahlo. The museum's education department created a superb Curriculum Guide. It includes discussion topics, a timeline of Frida's life, photographer bios, vocabulary definitions from terms used related to Frida's life and a bibliography.

The museum has done a fantastic job of linking Frida to contemporary issues and iconography. This is a tremendous resource for Elementary and High School teachers.

Although this is not in San Francisco there are many San Francisco references in the Curriculum Guide and photographer bios.

Summary of exhibition:
Images of an Icon offers a means of seeing Frida Kahlo’s world through the eyes of those who surrounded her. Modern masters of the camera such as Lucienne Bloch, Emmy Lou Packard, Florence Arquin, and Manuel Alvarez Bravo, as well as leading photojournalists such as Giselle Freund, Bernard Silberstein, and Fritz Henle captured her in their lenses. Kahlo’s relatives, lovers, and friends, including Guillermo Kahlo, Nickolas Muray, and Lola Alvarez Bravo were witness to a more intimate Frida. The images span Kahlo’s life and follow the artist from precocious child to famous artist. They permit a look into her bedroom, a seat at her table, a visit to her hospital room, a stroll through her garden, and a view into her collections. There is an ancillary component to the exhibition featuring the work of Northwest artists who have been inspired by Kahlo, the artist and icon.

Portrait of the Artists as a Young Couple

A portrait of Frida and Diego in San Francisco from Vanity Fair (September 1931): pg. 63.
Peter A. Juley & Son, photographic firm.
Juley, Paul, 1890-1975, photographer.

Image taken in 1930 or 1931. Details about the print available at Smithsonian American Art Museum Photograph Archives Catalog.

50th Anniversary of Diego Rivera's Death

According to the Virtual Diego Rivera Web Museum website 24 November 2007 was the 50th anniversary of Diego Rivera's death. The museum has a fantastic Adobe Flash video of Frida and Diego on its homepage.

Both Frida and Diego's last paintings are of watermelons. It is heartbreaking to see the images side by side.

Frida Kahlo, Sandías con leyenda: Viva la vida”(Watermelons with legend: The life lives), 1954

Diego Rivera, Watermelons, 1957

Frida and Diego at Cathay House restaurant

The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco (formerly the Museum of the City of San Francisco) posted this news clipping and photo from San Francisco Life on their website. It pictures Frida and Diego in the Cathay House restaurant 718 California Street at Grant Avenue in March 1941.

Cathay House restaurant is still in the same location, San Francisco's Chinatown. Unfortunately online reviews call it a disappointing tourist trap. It is a fantastic building - view images.

Did Frida turn heads in her native attire or even then were San Franciscans unfazed by unique characters?