JR and Timothée Chalamet rework the Frick

The artist and the film star debuted a new performance and installation just prior to attending the Met Gala

The still, contemplative galleries of the Frick (the museum now housed in the Marcel Breuer-designed exhibition space at 945 Madison Avenue) are about as far removed from the media scrum that greets attendees at the Met Museum’s annual Gala.

Timothée Chalamet sits above JR's new trompe l'oeil at the Frick

Yet the French artist, activist and Phaidon author JR managed to bring the two together with fellow francophone star, Timothée Chalamet. The pair debuted a new installation and performance via Instagram, staged on the evening of the Met Gala.

In the footage, Chalamet sits on a museum bench in the building, above a newly created trompe l'oeil, contemplating works from the Frick collection, before going on to tear through a series of black-and-white JR works installed in the museum.

Timothée Chalamet beside one of JR's new installations at the Frick

“We enter in an American flag, to find a place, an identity, a position, a future, between the stripes and the stars,” JR told Vogue. “To get to the end, we need to confront our rifts, our flaws, those of our nation, of our family and our own cracks which have been amplified by two years of loneliness, anger, fear, confrontation.”

JR: Can Art Change the World?

The film ends with JR and Chalamet walking the ten blocks from the Frick to the Met, gathering an ever-growing crowd of well-wishers as they go. It certainly looks like a good way to bid goodbye to the pandemic. You can see the full film on the Frick's Instagram; meanwhile, for more on JR, order JR: Can Art Change the World?, and for more on the Frick’s new home, consider our Breuer book.