The Frick owns Vermeer's Officer and Laughing Girl, and Monkman has taken its title for a show staged inside the same house — a Cree painter answering a Dutch master in the company of Bellini and Holbein. Monkman's history paintings are big, funny and unsparing about who gets to narrate a nation, which makes the mansion setting do half the work. If you like exhibitions that argue with their own venue, this is the season's sharpest.
What to expect
Because the Frick is a house museum, the contemporary work sits in dialogue with rooms full of Old Masters rather than in a white cube. Expect to walk between the exhibition galleries and the permanent collection, including the Vermeer that gives the show its title. The renovated second floor and its former private rooms are open on the same ticket.
Good to know
- Take the 6 to 68th Street-Hunter College, then walk north to East 70th Street.
- Find the Frick's own Vermeer in the permanent galleries before or after — the show is named for it.
- Children under ten are not admitted to the Frick.
- Capacity is tightly limited, so book advance entry rather than walking up.
- Elevators and step-free routes were added in the renovation, including to the second floor.
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Common questions
Who is Kent Monkman?
A Cree artist known for large-scale history paintings that reframe colonial narratives, often featuring his alter ego Miss Chief Eagle Testickle.
Why that title?
It takes the name of Vermeer's Officer and Laughing Girl, a painting in the Frick's own collection.
Is the permanent collection included?
Yes — the same admission covers the mansion's galleries and the second floor.
More this weekend
