Did anyone read this editorial in yesterday’s Trib?

Dark Hallway No Place For Sassy Photos

The Tampa Tribune, published: November 20, 2007

Things are winding down at the Tampa Museum of Art as it prepares for a temporary move to Centro Espanol de West Tampa, pending construction of its new home in Curtis Hixon Park.

But the impending move is no reason to let standards slip, as the museum did in presenting its Arte 2007 exhibit: Frida Kahlo: Images of an Icon.

The exhibit showcases 60 photographs of the late Mexican painter who became famous for her marriage to muralist Diego Rivera, but later became a force in her own right. Many of Kahlo’s colorful self-portraits express the pain she endured during her marriage and from a trolley-car accident early in life. Her popularity has grown, partly because of a biographical movie starring Salma Hayek.

Problem is, Tampa’s art museum chose to hang about 20 featured photographs in a darkened hallway - past the elevator and the business office. On Sunday, two key pieces had no illumination. Two staff members were made aware of the burned-out light, but neither made an effort to have it replaced.

Read the rest here.

Some thoughts. Is the idea that two of the museum’s staff members were slow to leap for a couple of new light bulbs really cause for an editorial? The writer goes on to complain about the lack of exhibit labels, which strikes me as a more substantive criticism but still not really A-section material.

Here’s what I would have written an editorial about instead: For Arte 2007 both the Tampa Museum of Art and Largo’s Gulf Coast Museum of Art programmed exhibits of photographic portraits of Frida Kahlo. (GCMA focused on portraits taken by Nickolas Muray, one of Kahlo’s lovers; the TMA show features a mix of photographers, Muray among them.)

I’m not dissing the actual shows, but could we have some institutional communication here? For me, one show of photographic portraits of Frida Kahlo this season is enough. Bay area residents would have been better served if one of these institutions had brought paintings by Rufino Tamayo or an installation by Alfredo Jaar—or whatever—instead.

However, I think we can all agree that a dark hallway is, indeed, no place for sassy photos.

Nickolas Muray (American, 1892-1965)
Frida with Diego and Gas Mask #11, about 1930
Platinum print
Courtesy Throckmorton Fine Art, New York