The Frick Reframed: The Frick Collection Presents Highlights Reconsidered at Frick Madison, opens March 18, 2021
“The Frick Collection launches Frick Madison, the long-awaited public opening of its temporary new home on Madison Avenue. Frick Madison invites audiences to experience the beloved holdings of the institution, reframed in a completely new context. Serving as the Frick’s temporary home for the next two years while its historic buildings at 1 East 70th Street undergo renovation, Frick Madison marks the first time that a substantial gathering of collection highlights will be presented outside the walls of the museum’s Gilded Age mansion. In a departure from the Frick’s customary presentation style, works are organized at Frick Madison chronologically and by region, allowing for fresh juxtapositions and new insights about the treasured paintings and sculptures by Bellini, Clodion, Gainsborough, Goya, Holbein, Houdon, Ingres, Piero della Francesca, Rembrandt, Titian, Turner, Velázquez, Vermeer, Whistler, and many others. The installation also spotlights the Frick’s impressive holdings of decorative arts and sculpture, as well as rarely seen works, including the entirety of canvases from the famed series by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, shown together for the first time in the institution’s history. Frick Madison is located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street, the former site of the Met Breuer and, previously, the Whitney Museum of American Art, which commissioned the building in 1966 by architect Marcel Breuer.” — Frick Collection
Second-Floor Installation
Room 1: Jean Barbet’s Angel, 1475, greets visitors on the second floor of Frick Madison, the temporary new home of The Frick Collection; photo: Joe Coscia
Room 2: Portraits by Hans Holbein the Younger face off at Frick Madison: Sir Thomas More (left), 1527, oil on panel, and Thomas Cromwell (right), ca. 1532–33, oil on panel, The Frick Collection; photo: Joe CosciaRoom 3: Dutch portraits by Frans Hals, with a view through to Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait, 1658, as shown at Frick Madison by The Frick Collection; photo: Joe CosciaRoom 4: Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait (left), 1658, and The Polish Rider (right), ca. 1655, as shown at Frick Madison by The Frick Collection; photo: Joe CosciaRoom 5: Three of the Frick’s eight portraits by Van Dyck, as shown at Frick Madison by The Frick Collection; photo: Joe CosciaRoom 6: Vermeer’s Mistress and Maid (left) and Officer and Laughing Girl (right), as shown at Frick Madison by The Frick Collection; photo: Joe Coscia
Third-Floor Installation
Room 7: The third-floor galleries at Frick Madison begin with three rare marble examples of Italian Renaissance portrait sculpture. By Laurana and Verrocchio, they date to the 1470s. The next room features early Italian religious painting from The Frick Collection, including works by Paolo Veneziano and Piero della Francesca; photo: Joe CosciaRoom 9: Two rare and infrequently displayed seventeenth-century Indian Mughal carpets from The Frick Collection occupy this gallery at Frick Madison; photo: Joe CosciaRoom 10: A dramatic display of European and Asian porcelain (ca. 1500–ca. 1900) is featured in this Frick Madison room, reflecting deep cultural interaction in the history of the medium. Remarkable examples of eighteenth-century French furniture from The Frick Collection are also shown; photo: Joe CosciaRoom 11: This grand gallery of Italian Renaissance paintings includes work by Veronese (back right wall) as well as Titian. Centrally located is a bronze by Francesco da Sangallo, placed atop a replica of its original base. To the left, in Room 12, are works by later Venetian masters Guardi, Tiepolo, and Carriera; photo: Joe CosciaRoom 13: Bellini’s St. Francis in the Desert, one of the Frick’s most important and loved works, is displayed in isolation, paired with one of the iconic trapezoidal windows Marcel Breuer conceived for the building; photo: Joe CosciaRoom 14: This gallery of bronze works features a case of extraordinary classically inspired statuettes; in the foreground, a large-scale version of Giambologna’s Nessus and Deianira (attributed to Tacca); photo: Joe CosciaRoom 15: This gallery features all nine Spanish paintings acquired by Henry Clay Frick. On the left wall are works by Goya, including The Forge. On the back wall is the iconic portrait King Philip IV of Spain by Velázquez; photo: Joe CosciaRoom 15: This gallery features all nine Spanish paintings acquired by Henry Clay Frick. On the right wall are works by Murillo and El Greco. On the back wall is the iconic portrait King Philip IV of Spain by Velázquez;photo: Joe Coscia
Fourth-Floor Installation
Room 18: This gallery of French eighteenth-century paintings brings together works by Boucher (left wall) and Chardin (at right); photo: Joe Coscia
Room 19: In this gallery of French decorative arts, a remarkable side table of blue Turquin marble and gilt-bronze mounts by Pierre Gouthière is shown with a secretaire by Riesener commissioned for Marie-Antoinette. Additional works by Gouthière and Sèvres are displayed above these important pieces of furniture; photo: Joe CosciaRoom 24: Four grand panels of Fragonard’s series The Progress of Love are shown together at Frick Madison in a gallery illuminated by one of Marcel Breuer’s trapezoidal windows. This view shows two of the 1771–72 paintings, with two later overdoors visible in the next gallery; photo: Joe CosciaRoom 25: Later works by Fragonard are shown in a gallery that completes the cycle, with a gathering of cupid-themed overdoors (at left), shown with the ca. 1790–91 painting Reverie; photo: Joe CosciaRoom 23: Nineteenth-century French Neoclassical works are shown in this gallery, among them painted portraits by Ingres and David, and an expressive terracotta bust by Chinard in the center; photo: Joe CosciaRoom 20: Works by British landscape rivals Turner (right) and Constable (left) are shown in this gallery; photo: Joe CosciaRoom 21: The Frick Collection is home to remarkable works of British portraiture, many seen in this gallery, with works by Gainsborough at left, Romney at center, and Hogarth and Reynolds at right; photo: Joe CosciaRoom 21: There are more paintings by Gainsborough at The Frick Collection than any other New York City museum. The wall of this Frick Madison gallery features five of the artist’s works, with his scene The Mall in St. James’s Park at center; photo: Joe CosciaRoom 21: The Frick Collection is home to striking works of British portraiture, including two paintings by Reynolds that flank the view of Constable’s White Horse in the gallery beyond; photo: Joe CosciaRoom 22: The Frick Collection houses more works by American-born James McNeill Whistler than by any other artist. This view shows three of four full-length portraits on display in a Frick Madison gallery; photo: Joe Coscia
“From the very beginning we sought to marry our holdings with Marcel Breuer’s great modernist building, with the intention of revealing the Frick’s strengths in a new way, while inspiring fresh conversations and observations. Throughout the installation, we’ve maintained the core value of the Frick experience: offering visitors the opportunity to study works of art in a direct and immediate way, surrounded by a beautiful and peaceful environment. Rather than trying to recreate the rooms of the mansion, we celebrate this architectural icon, hoping audiences emerge with new understandings of both its features and spaces, and of our remarkable and very distinct collection.” — Xavier F. Salomon, Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator
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