Inside the Lucas Museum: A Kahlo the World Rarely Sees

PBS spotlights five must-see works at the newly opened Lucas Museum, led by a 1940 Frida Kahlo self-portrait that is one of few held outside Mexico.

The piece walks through five must-see stops, from a Princess Leia sculpture on the grounds to two Banksy mural walls on the fifth floor, a Frida Kahlo self-portrait on the fourth floor, and Cassius Marcellus Coolidge's 1894 "Poker Game" — the original dogs-playing-painting — just steps from the Kahlo.

The most striking pick is Frida Kahlo's 1940 "Autorretrato Dedicado al Dr. Eloesser." PBS reports the museum acquired it in 2020, making it one of the few Kahlo self-portraits held outside her native Mexico, and quotes the museum's then-director calling it "The Mona Lisa of Mexico" in the Los Angeles Times. The painting shows Kahlo with flowers in her hair and a thorn necklace dripping blood, wearing silver earrings that were a gift from Pablo Picasso — whose work is also in the collection.

According to PBS, the museum's curatorial thesis is the collision of populist and fine art: the dogs-playing-poker canvas — the first of eighteen in Coolidge's series — hangs near the Kahlo, while Norman Rockwell paintings share walls with comic and illustration art. ABC7 adds that the collection spans Van Gogh, Diego Rivera, N.C. Wyeth, Frank Frazetta, Gordon Parks, Charles Schulz, Robert Crumb and Judith F. Baca, with more than 1,300 works in the inaugural exhibitions across 30-plus galleries.

Architect Ma Yansong's billowing structure, which PBS says almost seems to envelop the neighboring Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, is capped by an oculus the architect calls "almost like a spiritual space." "I think architecture is a narrative, is storytelling," Ma told the Associated Press. Outside, commissioned statuary includes "The Hutt Slayer" — Princess Leia choking Jabba — plus Yoda, Grogu and Padmé Amidala figures, per PBS.

The museum opens to the public Tuesday after a star-studded Saturday gala that ABC7 says drew Oprah Winfrey, Mark Hamill and others. Co-founder Mellody Hobson told ABC7 the founders "didn't follow any rules," and Hamill predicted it will be "an enormous draw" for Los Angeles tourism. Whether Kahlo devotees and Star Wars pilgrims will share the same galleries peaceably is the experiment now beginning.