Georgia vs. Frida in Minneaplis

Every once in a while, being a freelance-writer comes in handy. Yesterday was one of those days.

I was invited on an art tour by Meet Minneapolis, the city's revamped tourism board. The Twin Cities are gearing up for a big tourism push as the Republican National Convention is coming to town next fall.

The redesign of all the official tourism materials is just one of many steps the city is taking to help promote the area before it will be so prominently on display to the nation. Somehow my name ended up on the communication department's list of freelance travel writers. I wasn't about to complain.

The morning started at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, one of my favorite places in the city. The massive permanent collection is open free to the public, and I've always liked to wander the halls, seeking my old favorites and waiting for new pieces to catch my eyes.

But on this day I was entering the featured exhibit for free - with a docent - before the doors even opened to the public. I was so excited.

The featured exhibit from now until January 6 is a collection of works by Georgia O'Keeffe. The exhibit starts with a charcoal drawing from her very first show and ends with a charcoal drawing made at the end of her life. The two are oddly similar. Eerily so. It makes the exhibit feel like it completes a full circle. It also makes it seem as if Georgia O'Keeffe herself struggled, or was obsessed with, reoccurring ideas/images throughout her life.

I was drawn to this painting, one from a series of images she made with pelvic bones in her beloved New Mexico. I so liked this one because as soon as I saw it, it reminded me of this picture I shot on the Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentine Patagonia.

After having our Georgia fill, the group of freelancers was loaded into a van and shuttled to the Walker Art Center for a tour of that museum's current featured show: Frida Kahlo.

I have a sort of love-hate relationship with the Walker. I love its funky, boxy, outer shell. I love the very idea that this museum is able to exist in my hometown. The Walker is an ultra modern art museum. Everything in its permanent collection was produced after 1945. Sometimes, when I go there, I look at the installations and think, "What the hell is that?" This ain't no stuffy museum. I've seen things here that make me blush.

This past year, the Walker has knocked itself out to bring some big name shows to town. Over the summer, a Picasso exhibit took over the joint. Now, Frida Kahlo has moved in. She'll be there through January 20, 2008.

Unfortunately, the Walker was already open and the Frida exhibit was already packed (yes, packed on a Thursday morning) when we got there at 10 am. Being a novice Frida connoisseur, I was shocked to see the walls were filled with serious pieces, I mean big-time, famous Frida paintings. The Two Fridas. A Few Small Nips. The Henry Ford Hospital. At least five of the paintings were on loan from a museum in Mexico City's Chapultepec Park, a museum I visited when I was there. Also on display is a huge collection of personal family photographs of Frida and Diego.

After a nice lunch, my media tour was done. I will certainly be heading back to the Walker to take in the Frida exhibit at my leisure. Although, now I just have to figure out when to get there so I can have the art to myself....

* Minneapolis Montage, Meet Minneapolis
* Geogria O'Keeffe, Pelvis Series, 1947
* Walker Magazine cover, Nov/Dec 2007