Above: Pablo Picasso's Two Women With Hats (1921)
Friday December 23, 2011 - Last week my friend Debbie and I spent a delightful hour at The Frick looking at the exhibit of Picasso's drawings. I couldn't help thinking how much Kokyat would enjoy this collection, which is so beautifully displayed in the small galleries of The Frick's lower level. So this afternoon, after a delicious holiday lunch at LeSteak Bistro on 3rd Avenue, my photographer-friend and I headed to the museum with its restful atrium. I was hoping we would hit a time slot when the galleries were not too crowded, and we were indeed lucky in that regard. One advantage of The Frick is that children under ten years old are not admitted; this eliminates the annoying baby strollers and wailing infants who so often spoil our treks to The Met.
Photography is not allowed at The Frick so we simply devoted our attention to the incredible drawings which provide a lovely panorama of Picasso's works from the period 1890 to 1921. The earliest examples come from the nine-year-old prodigy; by the time he was 15, Picasso created a drawing of his father that is uncanny in its depth and style.
One of my favorite drawings on display was Three Bathers by the Shore (above) which has an exact dating of August 20, 1920. Of course you can find images of many of Picasso's works on the Internet, but nothing compares to standing before these masterworks live and imagining the artist's hands at work in their creation, and to ponder the thousands of other eyes that have beheld them over the span of the century of their existence.
Above: self-portrait of the artist as a young man. I've always loved reading about the period of time when Pablo Picasso was part of Gerald and Sara Murphy's circle on the French Riviera...the long afternoons on the plage where everyone was a bit in love with Sara. Ah, to have been alive then.
The Picasso exhibit is only at The Frick til January 8th; it is very much worth seeing. If you go - and you should - be sure to watch a showing of two brief films, one about the Frick Collection and the second about the Picasso exhibit, in the museum's music room. Very informative.
Sometime between the day Debbie and I were at The Frick and today, a new space has been opened in the museum: the Portico Gallery. This long, narrow hallway is lined with glass-fronted display cabinets full of delicate porcelains. The far end of the passageway opens onto a small windowed temple-like chamber...
...where Jean-Antoine Houdon's Diana the Huntress (above) presides magnificently. I will return to this small shrine, immediately a favorite Gotham place for reverie, often.
A perfect day with my perfect companion.