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The Lead The Tate Modern's upcoming exhibition, Frida: The Making of an Icon, has shattered ticket sales records, with over 41,000 tickets sold, making it the highest pre-selling exhibition in Tate's history. The Event Details The exhibition, which opens on June 25, has seen unprecedented demand, with tickets selling out quickly. This exhibition is a major retrospective of Frida Kahlo's work, featuring her iconic paintings, photographs, and personal items. The Data Analysis Over 41,000 tickets sold for Frida: The Making of an Icon exhibition Previous record: 32,000 advance sales for David Hockney's exhibition in 2017 The Bayeux Tapestry exhibition at the British Museum is also expected to draw large crowds, with the museum describing it as its 'exhibition of the century' The Impact Analysis The resurgence of blockbuster exhibitions in British museums is attributed to the public's desire for communal cultural experiences and the appeal of seeing original works in person. Museums believe that major exhibitions extend beyond the artists themselves, offering a shared cultural experience that cannot be replicated online. The Prediction As museums continue to face financial challenges, successful exhibitions like Frida: The Making of an Icon are crucial for attracting audiences and generating revenue. The Tate and other museums are likely to continue to invest in blockbuster exhibitions, which are expected to remain popular in the coming years.

The Week in Art The week in art has seen several exciting exhibitions and installations. Here are some highlights: Exhibition of the Week Frida: The Making of an Icon at Tate Modern, London, until 3 January, showcases Frida Kahlo's influence and posthumous fame. Also Showing John Constable: Views of Nature at British Museum, London, until 4 October, features open air sketches by the British artistic genius. White Cube at Claydon at Claydon Park, Buckinghamshire, until 14 September, presents works by Rachel Kneebone, Cerith Wyn Evans, and Enrico David. The Department of Euterpe at Warburg Institute, London, until 3 October, explores the history of Aby Warburg's art institute. Aleksandra Kasuba at Tate St Ives, until 4 October, showcases nature-inspired sculptures and installations. Image of the Week French street artist JR transformed Paris's oldest bridge into a giant immersive cave-like artwork called La Caverne du Pont Neuf. What We Learned Gilbert & George have a mystery collaborator. What it's like to 'eat art' during a Frida Kahlo-inspired meal. A new photobook pays tribute to Spain's ineffectual napkins. Masterpiece of the Week Saint Peter Martyr by Giorgio Schiavone, c. 1456-61, is a powerful painting at the National Gallery, London.

The Culinary Connection Today you're going to eat art, says Federico Valdez, a chef at the School of Mexican Cuisine with the word Queso (Cheese) tattooed on his forearm. Today, you're going to eat history. In a sun-filled dining room lined with Mexican flowers, books and artefacts, unfolds a three-course feast inspired by Frida Kahlo, her life, her art and her loves, including her first lesbian affair. The starter, inspired by her childhood fascination with revolution, is a lightly spiced Mexican take on pirozhki, the Russian favourite. The main dish – served with pulque, an agave-derived drink Kahlo loved – taps into her rebellious spirit. It's called Frida Against the World, a giant stuffed chilli that sits amid a nutty, beany sauce similar to the one eaten at Kahlo's wedding to Diego Rivera, then the most famous artist in the world, now much more in her shadow. When she found Rivera in bed with her sister, she said: 'I'm going to get all my furniture and leave. I hate you' "I wanted this to be hot and horny," says Valdez, explaining that halved figs were added to reference Kahlo's sexuality. "Her first love, with a female teacher, happened at a time when Mexico wasn't so open. I wanted to get in all that spicy gossip. I'm not a big fan of playing it safe." The Exhibition Preview I'm in Mexico City with a Tate delegation just as the huge jacaranda trees are blooming purple and violet across its parks and boulevards – to follow in Kahlo's footsteps ahead of Frida: The Making of an Icon, a show of more than 30 of her works at Tate Modern in London that seems destined to be a summer blockbuster, adding yet more fuel to Fridamania. One work, Self Portrait With Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, was painted in 1940 after her painful divorce from Rivera. A spider monkey, similar to the one he gave her as a present, is pulling on her thorn necklace, drawing blood. The two soon remarried, Kahlo inscribing the clocks in their house with the years of their separation and reunion. "The exhibition is like a movie," says Tobias Ostrander, its curator. "Frida is the star but it's also about her life, her people, her impact." Charting Kahlo's rise from unknown painter to global phenomenon, the show will also examine merch (expect a Kahlo Barbie) and gauge her influence on later artists. On display, too, will be many of the artist's treasured possessions, including her brilliantly patterned tehuana dresses. Graciela Iturbide's ghostly photographs of her crutches, customised medical corsets and prosthetic leg will also feature. These were taken 50 years after Kahlo's death, when all her belongings were finally freed from the bathroom in which Rivera had ordered them to be locked away. The Casa Azul Experience This took place at Casa Azul, the house in Coyoacán (The Place of the Coyote Owners) where Kahlo was born and spent most of her 47 years. It's now a beautiful, beguiling museum with smooth exterior walls painted a gorgeous blue. These border shiny red concrete paths that thread through fountains and lush gardens bursting with palm, yucca, cactus and bougainvillaea. "We don't know exactly where the blue came from," says Perla Labarthe Álvarez, the museum director. "But in her diary, Frida expressed what the colour meant to her: purity, electricity and love. Because of her health – she had surgery all her life, more than 30 operations – she was at home a lot so it had to be a comfortable place where she could rest. Many of her still lifes were done in the garden. She called her home A Place Full of Places." It's a perfect description. For this is a breathtakingly evocative location, even leaving aside the fact that Trotsky lived here for two years with his wife, having a brief affair with Kahlo. The Artistic Legacy Tours begin in the living room, with its hefty pyramid-style fireplace designed by Rivera and, as an old photo shows, once flanked by two of his macabre Judas dolls, papier-mache devils that are stuffed with fireworks and set alight at festivals. Opposite is Kahlo's mesmerising portrait of her beloved photographer father, painted 15 years after he died, his eyes as captivating as hers. On the walls, photos and texts detail the polio Kahlo contracted at the age of six, leaving her with one shorter leg, and the trolley-bus crash at 18 that impaled her on an iron handrail and left her in pain for much of her life, as well as unable to have children. She could never paint this accident, even though what she did paint was often deeply painful and personal – and these works were largely created at Casa Azul, upstairs in her studio, where visitors can see the easel adapted to allow her to use brushes lying on her back or seated in her wheelchair.