{"id":2005890,"date":"2026-06-22T15:44:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T12:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2005890"},"modified":"2026-06-22T15:44:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T12:44:20","slug":"tate-moderns-frida-kahlo-show-has-pre-sold-a-record-41000-tickets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2005890","title":{"rendered":"Tate Modern\u2019s Frida Kahlo Show Has Pre-Sold a Record 41,000 Tickets"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Frida_-The-Making-of-an-Icon-mural.-Thames-Path-Blackfriars-Station-SE1-8NJ-15-June\u202f2026-\u2013-2028.-Made-possible-by-Better-Bankside-and-Network-Rail-produced-by-JACK-ARTS-part-of-BUILDHOLLYWOOD.-2.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n

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\n\tMadonna collects her. Her work sets auction records for women artists. Netflix is developing a series about her. She\u2019s the subject of an opera.<\/p>\n

\n\tNow, Mexican painter Frida Kahlo has another claim to fame. \u201cFrida: The Making of an Icon,\u201d opening this month at London\u2019s Tate Modern, has pre-sold 41,000 tickets, a record for the institution, reports the Guardian<\/em>. That beats the 32,000 advance sales for the museum\u2019s 2017 David Hockney exhibition.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re pretty blown away by it,\u201d Catherine Wood, Tate Modern\u2019s interim director, told the publication.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe museum is billing the show as the first major exhibition to explore how Kahlo became a \u201cglobal icon\u201d and a major influence on a generation of artists. Co-organized with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the show will include more than 30 works by the artist alongside documentary photographs, personal effects, and works by a host of artists reflecting her profound influence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Frida Kahlo,\u00a0Untitled (Self-portrait with thorn necklace and hummingbird)<\/em>,\u00a01940.<\/span>Courtesy Tate Modern.<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tHighlights will include a selection of Kahlo\u2019s most iconic self-portraits, including 1926\u2019s Self-Portrait (With Velvet Dress)<\/em> and Self-Portrait with Loose Hair<\/em> (1938), through which, says Tate, \u201cshe embraced her Mexican heritage, queer self-image, feminist ideals, and experience as a disabled woman.\u201d Artist Diego Rivera\u2014her husband, one of the great Mexican muralists and a global icon himself\u2014will also appear, with works like his ca. 1935 portrait of Kahlo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThough the artist resisted being labeled a Surrealist, the artists of that group embraced her, with the movement\u2019s founder, Andr\u00e9 Breton, dubbing her \u201ca self-made Surrealist.\u201d New York\u2019s Julien Levy Gallery, a major supporter of the movement in the States, gave her a solo show in 1938, after which Breton invited her to show in Paris; the state acquired her 1938 self-portrait The Frame<\/em>, which will go on view along with works like Diego and Frida<\/em> (1929), Survivor<\/em> (1938), Memory (The Heart)<\/em>, from 1937, and Girl with a Death Mask<\/em> (1938).<\/p>\n

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Yasumasa Morimura,\u00a0An Inner Dialogue with Frida Kahlo (Hand Shaped Earring),<\/em>\u00a02001.<\/span>\u00a9 Yasumasa Morimura; Courtesy of the artist, Luhring Augustine, New York and Yoshiko Isshiki Office, Tokyo<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tOther Latin American artists identified with the Surrealists, including Kati Horna and Leonor Fini, will also appear in the show, which will explore their preoccupation with imagery informed by the movement, such as death, dreaming, masks, and skeletons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter Kahlo\u2019s death in 1954, the US Chicano movement took her up as a symbol in the 1960s, and in the 1980s and \u201990s, Mexican artists such as Nah\u00fam B. Zenil and Georgina Quintana, also inspired by Kahlo, created work that critically repurposed quintessential Mexican imagery and popular traditions. Her global reach is reflected in the work of artists such as Judy Chicago, Ana Mendieta, Yasumasa Morimura, and Kiki Smith. Hayden Herrera\u2019s 1983 biography of the artist, now translated into more than 25 languages, further expanded her global appeal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe show also explores \u201cFridamania,\u201d or the commercialization of the artist\u2019s work, image, and style, by which the artist is now used to promote products like tequila and perfume and even has her own Barbie doll.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThat last phenomenon is not uncontroversial; the artist\u2019s great-niece Cristina Kahlo, has called her commercialization a \u201cdouble-edged sword,\u201d saying it \u201cin some way distorts what she really was: a great artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrida: The Making of an Icon\u201d will be on view at Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG, July 25, 2026\u2013January 3, 2027.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/tate-modern-frida-kahlo-record-advance-tickets-1234789885\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Frida_-The-Making-of-an-Icon-mural.-Thames-Path-Blackfriars-Station-SE1-8NJ-15-June\u202f2026-\u2013-2028.-Made-possible-by-Better-Bankside-and-Network-Rail-produced-by-JACK-ARTS-part-of-BUILDHOLLYWOOD.-2.jpg?w=1024″] Madonna collects her. Her work sets auction records for women artists. Netflix is developing a series about her. She\u2019s the subject of an opera. Now, Mexican painter Frida Kahlo has another claim to fame. \u201cFrida: The Making of an Icon,\u201d opening this month at London\u2019s Tate Modern, has pre-sold 41,000 tickets, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2005890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2005890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005890\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2005890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2005890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2005890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}