JR and Timothée Chalamet have fun in The Frick

The artist and the film star debuted a new performance and installation just before the Met Gala

The still, contemplative galleries of The Frick Madison (the museum temporarily housed in the Marcel Breuer-designed exhibition space at 945 Madison Avenue) are 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 Madison

“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. You can see the full film on the Frick's Instagram; meanwhile, for more on JR, order JR: Can Art Change the World? and How Old Am I.

JR: How Old Am I?

Meanwhile for a bit more on the Frick’s temporary new home at 945 Madison Avenue, take a look at our Breuer book.