The Frick Collection is at 1 East 70th Street (between Madison and Fifth Avenues). Not your typical art gallery: the artworks are exhibited in the mansion formerly owned by Mr Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919), one of America’s most successful coke and steel industrialists. There's a huge range of art there, from Italian Renaissance Titian to English Impressionist Constable.
My knowledge of much of Frick's collection is amateur at best. Suffice to say stepping into each room evolved my comprehension of grandeur. I absorbed all I could and when I got tired, sat in the central courtyard by the fountain, thinking of my ontological self in this space which, whilst temporal, accommodates such a wonderful history, and sanctity, that I wish it would be here forever.
Anyway...
The Frick was in the top 3 of Matthew's New York visit. Up there too was Williamsburg and a Vegan restaurant in the East Village called Angelica Kitchen. I forget what I ordered, but I recall one of the most colourful (aesthetically and palatably) salad I have ever witnessed. The meal actually commenced with a bowl of Cauliflower & Cream soup, which I consumed with the refined vigour of a superior Briton. It was very nice. I don't like cauliflower but it's great in soup. Also had coffee with rice milk. Not too bad. The whole thing was cheap too. A read the Village Voice and chatted to the local gentleman opposite me; a very pleasant New Yorker, one I shall not forget. I may go so far to say a 'quiet American'.
If you're ever in New York, go to Angelica Kitchen.
The Frick Collection
