I've spoken to quite a few people about the Frick and although their reactions are rather mixed, nearly all of them agree on one thing:
This guy had a damn nice house.
Upon arriving at the Frick, I was upset about three things
1) Entry is $15 for adults but I could just tell them that I'm a student and only pay five.
2) The realization that I'm far too big of a pussy to tell them I'm a student because they might ask for my student ID. That would be embarrassing.
3) If I had just waited a day I could have taken advantage the "Pay as you Wish" Sundays at the Frick.
This is why you don't wake up obnoxiously early and head to a random museum without doing any research.
$15 dollars and a whole bunch of self loathing later, I was in.
I think the thing that I found most upsetting about the Frick was that there were no write ups explaining the artwork. If you want to learn anything interesting about the artwork at the Frick that you have to buy one of those stupid little audio tour things and feel like a douche walking around listening to it. I hate those things.
Is there really any good reason not to put explanations next to artwork in a museum, aside from simply adding to its overall pretentiousness?
For instance the Frick contains a statue of a she-wolf much like the one below
The only information given is the fact that it is a she-wolf and it was made in Italy. There's nothing there that explains that in Roman mythology Romulus, who was the founder of Rome, and his brother Remus were nursed by a she-wolf as babies. The fact that a statue of a she-wolf without Romulus and Remus included is pretty rare isn't mentioned.
Instead people without audio tours are left to their own devices and probably wind up thinking "That is pretty fucking ugly."
It would also be nice if they let me in on what the hell that skull is doing behind St. Francis. It's pretty creepy.
I really would enjoy it if one day a museum just decided to put random and blatantly incorrect descriptions next to their artwork. Think how much fun this would be...
"The Seventh Earl of Derby fathered 12 other children. However his first daughter ate all of their brains when they hit six months of age. Whenever she was reprimanded for these actions her head would repeatedly spin around in a counter-clockwise fashion. This frightened the Earl of Derby and made him feel like less of a man. In order to compensate, he pretended that he was Zorro."
"Wu-Tang Clan ain't nuthin' to fuck with!"
That would make the Frick worth the price of admission. Otherwise, not really worth it. Unless, of course, you like walking around other people's houses. In which case, befriend some rich people and, hopefully, they won't charge admission to let you walk around their mansion.
On the way home, I stumbled upon the Asia Society Museum. I figured, "why the hell not?"
The museum has two floors. The first floor was showing films by Chen Chieh-Jen, a Taiwanese film maker. I walked in right at the beginning of one called "Factory." Apparently, he brought a bunch of old laborers back to the Taiwanese clothing factory where they worked for 20 years. After 20 years of service, they were fired because the company they were making clothes for found cheaper labor (see how explanations attached to works can add to them, I never would have come close to figuring this out if I only watched to film). The movie had no sound or plot and mainly consisted of a series of nearly motionless shots with slow zooms and pans.
When I first glanced at the screen, it seemed boring as all hell. Yet after 3 minutes of watching it, I was captivated. I sat there through the whole half hour film and didn't even move. Fortunately, nobody goes to the Asia Society's museum so I wasn't interrupted. A total of two other people entered the room while I was there, one of whom was a security guard.
The rest of the museum served as a good explanation of why no one goes there. There was a small collection of historical artwork and a exhibition of Chinese-American elementary students' artwork. As for the historical artwork: there's a better collection at the Met and you're not forced to pay $10 for admission there. As for the elementary students' work: fuck you Asian Society, you charged me an entry fee for this.
Aside from the movie, the best part was the fact that they had a number you can call in order to get guided audio tours through the exhibitions even though every door states: "No cameras, mobile phones or umbrellas allowed in exhibitions." Huh?
Are you kidding me? What type of genius is running that place? Oh yeah, the same one who make people pay admission to see 9 year olds' artwork and then wonders why nobody comes.
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