Paul Richard, wrote recently about the disappointing numbers of visitors attending the Corcoran Gallery of Art's mega-exhibit "Modernism." It's not easy to create (or predict the success of) museum exhibitions that will attract huge numbers and put some money in a museum's coffers, especially at $14 a pop, as the Corcoran's entry fee is. I've heard nothing but good things about the Corcoran's new director (Paul Greenhalgh) and at least he's trying to get the Corcoran back on track and also out of the red.

Museum directors are caught between a rock and a hard place when selecting exhibitions that have a good chance of being popular. In the elitist world of most art critics and the art world cabal, any exhibition that is popular with the masses is immediately suspect of being low brow. The American art world generally does not trust the American public's sense of taste when it comes to visiting an art exhibition. If they line up around the corner, then the exhibit is too popular and thus... ah... "popular."

Nonetheless I have been hard at work with some suggestions almost guaranteed to bring huge masses to the Corcoran, or any other museum in the nation for that matter — lines like the ones we experienced in DC with the Vermeer exhibition, or the Van Gogh exhibition, or the WPA/C PostSecret exhibition, or in Philly with the Dali exhibition.

Frida Kahlo - In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907–1954), the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, in association with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), will present a major exhibition of the artist’s paintings spanning her career. Curated by art historian and Kahlo biographer Hayden Herrera and Walker Associate Curator Elizabeth Carpenter, Frida Kahlo will open at the Walker October 27, 2007 – January 20, 2008, before traveling to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and SFMOMA. Why Kahlo is not coming to any DC museum is a mystery to me, and I can already hear the k'ching of cash registers in those museums selling posters, books, etc.

The Art of Comic Books - Hollywood gets it, so when will the art world get it? Comic book characters generate big bucks for La La Land, and I suspect that a massive survey of original artwork by both the vintage artists of the early to mid-20th century, as well as the cult icons like Frank Frazetta, Berni Wrightson and others, coupled with the young new hard guys and gals is sure to a) expose the brilliant genre of art that is comic book art, and b) get huge lines to see the original boards for Superman, or Batman, or Spidey, or Frazetta's spectacular series of Conan, the Barbarian illustrations.