Dear Xavier and Aimee, it is amazing to observe how your delightful Cocktails with a Curator are gradually turning into Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron of our time. Thank you for giving us an opportunity to join your distinguished stoic company with our cocktails. Bravo!

All I can say about this episode is that it is delightful. I smiled all the way through it. It is two colleagues, who respect each other, chatting in a natural manner. Thank you.

What a nice surprise. Seeing Xavier relaxed, smiling, and showing his personality was terrific.

As an artist, this is so great as I am in a wheelchair and no buses run in my small town at the moment. To have access to the art you explain and this is so FABULOUS!!! Thank you!

This was delightful to watch. Yes, I would want Sargent to paint me too.

You both are such a gift to so many of us in this difficult time. I hope you know that. Please, beyond this present difficulty, continue to share at the depth that you have given us in these videos, 3x/week. The general public needs to know that art is not about privilege. It's about humanity and hope.

The Nefertiti bust is one of my favorite pieces of art. I thought I was prepared to see it in person but, when I actually did, I was floored. I don't know if it's her fabulous beauty or her serene, majestic, dignified authority that move me, but I feel powerless in her presence.

The Frick videos are wonderful! Thank you for your wonderful work, and for giving us wonderful cultural experiences during this time.

What wonderful talks and series like Cocktails and Frick Five during the lockdown. So my suggestion: Make these a regular feature AFTER all this is over. It would be, I feel, a great public service to the city and the nation.

Two bright lights during the pandemic,thank you so much .

I'll never think of the Frick the same way! Thank you. More, please ❤

Very lovely interview! Thank you.

The intelligence of that woman, goodness gracious....

The frick videos are the best! 😍 She is so right, Sargent could really paint "killer" portraits and Parmigianino is definitely underrated here in Italy too. He deserves more love. Keep up the good work and greetings from Italy 🇮🇹

Aimee, you made the perfect choice of painters for your portrait. Sargent painted brilliantly how people wanted to be seen while also capturing who they really were.

These two bring such grace, nobility and joy to what is otherwise a seemingly impenetrable world. Makes me prouder to be a New Yorker. Bravo! ❤️

It’s so nice to see you smiling Xavier.

Best Frick Five of all! Thank you so much! Now, I presume Aimee has to ask Xavier the five questions!

If there were ever a perfect person, it would have to be Aimee Ng!

Awesome per usual. It is interesting how curators admire things beyond their professional focus. Never heard of Parmigianino- thanks for the intro.

I was overwhelmed by the Nefertiti bust in Berlin, also. Spectacular setting, and a beautiful object. I'd be willing to put the arguments over provenance and repatriation aside, too, to be able to have her visit my home, too! Great program. Thanks for inviting us into your homes.

Such a fabulous video!

How lovely - another question and answer with two pleasant, knowledgeable art historians. you are so right about Frans Hals Ms Ng: I'd agree! Would love to see the Frick Collection one day.

Lovely!! The interaction between the two was amazing. Thanks so much once again.

Two of my favorite people in the world.

Thank you for this, and all the other videos.

Yes...totally delightful.What a joy .Thank you.

Just recently read “The Fifth Business” and I know what she means; the characters grow on you and the skill in writing a story that covers decades yet holds together is just delicious.

I'm so glad to hear Aimee loves Robertson Davies! I love him too, and I just reread the Deptford Trilogy, and loved it just as much as I did the first time, which was many years ago. I really enjoy Aimee's talks, and now I know we're soul sisters! (PS I am not Canadian)

My daughter made a paper sculpture of the Scream when she was about 8 yrs old. Loved it 30 yrs ago and equally today. I still have it on the wall in my bedroom

I'm going to read "Fifth Business." Thanks for the tip. You are both delightful.

I enjoyed that very much. Thank you for doing it. You have contributed a lot to the positive side of Lockdown for me. I hope I can make it to the Frick one day.

What a fun time! Brilliant

More, please!!

so good this is to me why media was invented

Fantastically fun!!! I do miss the cocktails.... yet it's good with a cup of tea at 3:30 pm !!!

OMG, what an amazingly wonderful discussion. I took notes, but was pleased other commenters included the spelling of some artists I was unfamiliar with. I am off to research these ideas. In my seclusion during the pandemic I examine one art history painting, one piece of music and a flower from Redoute. Thanks for the great material!

So. Much. Fun.

Awww Aimee is Canadian 🥺

Delightful!

Thank you for sharing your personal opinions, especially on topics like who you think is overrated in the Art world. The idea that you pointo ut about how Hals portrays ordinary people, had never occurred to me as such, but the truth is that when I see them I always end up with a feeling of seeing something funny, which I have finally been able to contextualize (thanks by the way). Hals do lack that sense of dignity with some of his sitters. On the other hand, when seeing the jesters that Velazquez painted, the same does not happen, their expressions generate another range of feelings. Velazquez shows the same respect before the portrayed being a king or a jester. In the reopening of the Prado Museum the rooms have been reorganized and in that of the Meninas a kind of "altarpiece" with paintings of the dwarfs has been placed where you can compare almost every major character with any of them.

I ❤ Aimee Ng. . . 😍

We might not have any Parmigianino portraits in the US but we’ll always have Rory Gilmore as Portrait of a Young Lady (1525). Iykyk. 😤

Xavier, hablas un inglés tan claro y flemático, te agradezco que no uses esas muletillas tan típicas como "you know", cada dos o tres palabras. Mi admiración.

Great compromise. Ng takes the bust haha no more fighting between Egypt and Germany. Nobody is happy, but you.

I enjoyed this interview immensely. I do not always enjoy her content, and I do not agree about Hals. Ng’s piece on the Gulbenkian where she admired a Rubens exhibited on a Brutalist cement wall hit a mischord of sorts with me, and she tends to be scattered in her delivery. Here, though, she comes across as intelligent, thoughtful, forthright and charming. Fine interview. BTW, she should let Sargent choose the outfit in her portrait.

Betts

Oh...Parmigiano DRAWINGS, absolutley!

Charming, but I also like Hals. I do know what you mean by not giving his subject dignity, like the portrayal of the peasants in Jean, Duc de Berry's book of hours. I was unaware that Queen Nefertiti is thought a fake from 1912 by some and fervently hope the art historians prove that she is not a fake. An enjoyable conversation.

😆❤️

The Nefertitti bust was stolen from a sacred burial ground by the British archeologist.

Xavier: There looks to be a contemporary painting behind you in your home. Seems interesting. Mind if I ask what is is and who did it? Can't see it completely but it looks to be at least a male sitter.

Ms. Ng., Why wouldn't a reproduction of the Nefertiti bust satisfy the need you state for its presence in your apartment? Does it require one of the world's great original artworks (we presume!) to inspire you over coffee? Or isn't it simply the presence of the object that looks like that?

Per Robert Shire: Shocked that Hals was singled out as "most overrated" - and on the flimsy basis of his sitters' demeanors. Though not specified, wondering if she considers him "most overrated" of just old master artists (given The Frick is a collection of old masters) or of artists of any stripe. If she considers Hals more overrated than the likes of Koons, Richter, Freud, Basquiat, Warhol, Ricter, Bacon, and Rothko, I think she's working at the wrong museum.

Delightful!