The Frick Collection Art Museum

For my second art museum I visited the Frick Museum of Art. Unfortunately photos of any kind were not allowed. This is especially sad as the entire place is gorgeous! Unlike the MOMA, the Guggenheim and the Whitney, which all use the plain white wall approach to curating, the Frick presents the Art inside of the former residence of Mr. Henry Frick. Mr. Frick was the wealthy collector who amassed the impressive collection displayed within the Frick Collection. The Home itself is a work of art with impressive scrolling work on the ceilings and doors. There are several rooms where the walls themselves instead of being covered with wall paper have been covered with a series of paintings. My personal favorite was the Boucher room, the walls of which were covered in images of a little boy and girl playing together. Always the same boy and girl distinguishable by the distinctive braid on the little girl and the reddish jumpsuit outfit on the little boy. For me what makes this room special is not just the cute kids in each scene but that in one scene you see the little boy seated sketching this bust of the little girl. And then right next to that wall actually in the room with you is the bust he is sketching. Its an actual work that Mr. Frick owned. It was pretty cool. Overall I like the way the Frick was curated better than say the Whitney, but then I really don't like the whole white wall thing. I do have to say though in some places there was a glare on some of the paintings and the more consideration should have been given to light placement.

On the way home I walked past Franz West's "Ego and Id" on the south east corner of Central Park. There was also a few smaller of his pieces in the MOMA sculpture garden but the "Ego and Id" installation is massive as it reaches twenty feet high. In the plaque it states that Mr. West intends his works to be interacted with and that he was a member of the "action" art group in Vienna. Each of these pieces turn up at the bottom creating tiny seats at the bottom on which passersby can stop and sit. The colors were lovely and bright. I kept trying to figure out which piece was ego and which was id. I think the all pink was the Ego b/c the ego is supposed to be the slightly more rational and in control part compared to the Id. I think the Id would be the more bright and clashing multi-colored piece. I really like this installation and would like to learn more about the artist.