Latest news with #CarrèreandHastings
Epoch Times
30-04-2025
- General
- Epoch Times
The Visionary Creation and Restoration of The Frick Collection
The magnolias are in bloom again at New York's The Frick Collection. The spring rebirth of these beloved trees, among the largest in the city, coincided with the April 17 reopening of the museum after a comprehensive five-year renovation to the tune of $ These sympathetic enhancements merge seamlessly with the original structure, the 1914 home of Gilded Age industrialist Henry Clay Frick (1849–1919) and his family. It was designed in the Beaux-Arts style by architectural firm Carrère and Hastings. A Lifetime of Art By working with the leading advisors, decorators, and dealers of his era, Frick amassed one of the most spectacular private art collections in America. It is resplendent with works by the leading artists of Western civilization from the Renaissance through the late 19th century. European paintings, bronzes, Limoges enamels, porcelains, antique furnishings, and other decorative arts are displayed side-by-side. It is an unusual curatorial choice for a museum, but one that evokes the atmosphere that the Frick family enjoyed when in residence. In his will, Frick bequeathed the mansion and its contents to the public for its enjoyment and education, and it has continued to be graced by exceptional stewards. The collection has grown to number around 1,800 works, requiring more gallery space and better infrastructure, which the renovation addresses. Almost half of the objects were acquired in Frick's lifetime, while the rest were purchased by the museum or donated by philanthropists. Recent gifts including Meissen and Du Paquier porcelain, significant works on paper, and its first Renaissance portrait of a woman, a Before the current reopening, the last major renovation of the Frick was completed in 1935. That year, the building and collection opened as a public museum. The necessary structural transformation to facilitate this was overseen by Helen Clay Frick, Henry's daughter, and was engineered exquisitely by classical architect John Russell Pope. He created the main floor galleries, the stunning interior Garden Court, and an adjacent nine-story building for the Frick Art Research Library, among other contributions. The Garden Court at The Frick Collection. Joseph Coscia Jr./The Frick Collection Now, the museum and library are connected internally, facilitating easy access between the two spaces for staff, scholars, and other visitors. The Frick's Main Floor Related Stories 11/13/2023 5/8/2023 The Frick Art Research Library Reading Room. Joseph Coscia Jr./The Frick Collection The library, free and open to the public, was founded by Helen in 1920 as a tribute to her father; originally, it was located in the house's basement bowling alley. Its collection of materials related to Western fine and decorative arts goes beyond the scope of the museum's holdings, spanning the 4th through the 20th century. The Reading Room's elegant, tranquil environment is enhanced by the adornment of studded red leather doors, historic lighting fixtures, painted oak beams, and a golden fresco. The James S. and Barbara N. Reibel Reception Hall at the Frick Collection. (Nicholas Venezia/The Frick Collection Murano glass lighting, a stunning staircase in calming Italian marble hues, and welcoming visitor service assistants greet guests in the freshly enlarged Reception Hall, a core feature in the museum's overall renovation and enhancement project as designed by Selldorf Architects. The firm is led by the eponymous Annabelle Selldorf, recognized for international cultural projects and recently named one of Grand staircase leading up to the Frick Collection's newly opened and renovated second floor galleries. Joseph Coscia Jr./The Frick Collection The pièce de résistance of the improved museum is the opening of this original second floor, which were the private family rooms of the Fricks before the building became a museum and the level was converted to offices. For decades, many a visitor would look longingly at the roped off Grand Staircase of the ground floor's South Hall and daydream about what treasures resided above. Now, visitors can ascend and discover the refurbished rooms curated with antique furniture, restored and recreated textiles, and, of course, artistic masterpieces. A Sneak Peak at the Second Floor The Small Hallway on the second floor is newly opened to the public and features a 1914 ceiling mural by Alden Twachtman. Joseph Coscia Jr./The Frick Collection A giddiness grips one while navigating the array of new galleries—each unfamiliar room beckons with enticing doorway glimpses. The visitor's progression is halted in the Small Hallway. What could be an ordinary passageway is made enchanting with a painted blue ceiling decorated with chinoiserie scenes of monkeys and birds, pagodas, and further whimsical motifs. Little is confirmed about the artist or the inspiration for this mural, which dates to 1914, but it is one of the joyful discoveries on this unchartered floor. Breakfast Room on the new second-floor gallery at The Frick. Joseph Coscia Jr./The Frick Collection Some of these new galleries are arranged in keeping with how they appeared during the Fricks' residency, such as the Breakfast Room. Others have been created anew. An example of this is the Medals Room, which is a display space for recent acquisitions in this genre. It includes a painting formerly not viewable by the public—a 15th-century Gentile Bellini portrait of a doge. Medals Room on the new second-floor gallery at the Frick. Joseph Coscia Jr./The Frick Collection Some fan favorites from the museum's ground floor galleries have been relocated up above. The Walnut Room, formerly Frick's own bedroom, showcases two of its signature female portraits. The depiction by the 18th-century British society portraitist George Romney of his muse Emma Hart, later the infamous Lady Hamilton, is given pride of place over the mantle and flattered by the wall's elaborately carved wooden garland. This placement is the same as it was in Frick's time. Across the room is the French Neoclassical artist Jean-August-Dominque Ingres's mesmerizing 'Louise, Princesse de Broglie, Later the Comtesse d'Haussonville.' The Walnut Room, formerly Frick's own bedroom, is now on view in the second-floor gallery. Joseph Coscia Jr./The Frick Collection Through Aug. 11, 2025, visitors have the rare opportunity to see one of The Gold-Grounds Room is a poignant tribute to Helen. Housed in her former bedroom, it displays a small, special group of Italian Early Renaissance paintings with gold backgrounds. This groundbreaking style was of particular interest to Helen, although her father preferred the High Renaissance. She was instrumental in the museum's acquisition of this assemblage. Highlights of this gallery, indeed, masterpieces of the Frick and museums in New York as a whole, are the Duccio and Cimabue panels. Both works are currently on loan to blockbuster European exhibitions: 'Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–1350' at London's National Gallery and 'A New Look at The Gold-Grounds Room, a new second-floor gallery, features Italian Early Renaissance paintings. Joseph Coscia Jr./The Frick Collection The most heralded area on this floor is the former boudoir of Adelaide Childs, Frick's wife and Helen's mother. In her lifetime, it was decorated with panels by the French Rococo artist François Boucher and his workshop. The panels were commissioned by Madame de Pompadour. The Boucher Room has been relocated to the former boudoir of Adelaide Childs, Frick's wife, on the second floor. Joseph Coscia Jr./The Frick Collection Until now, most of this tableau, including the marble fireplace, had been displayed on the museum's ground floor. The massive undertaking to disassemble what was called the Boucher Room, take it back up the Grand Staircase, and reinstall it to its original form was a massively complex undertaking spearheaded by Xavier F. Salomon, the museum's deputy director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator. His concept has become a showstopper. The Boucher Room features decorated panels by the French Rococo artist François Boucher and his workshop and a collection of Sèvres porcelain. Joseph Coscia Jr./The Frick Collection The charming painted scenes of children engaged in various occupations of the arts and sciences are complimented by a collection of Sèvres porcelain, parquet flooring from an 18th-century château, and original silk upholstery, not to mention a wonderful view of the museum's Fifth Avenue Garden with the magnolias and Central Park. The Frick's 'Old Acquaintances' The ground floor Dining Room displays the Frick's 18th-century art collection. Joseph Coscia Jr./The Frick Collection For repeat Frick visitors, the revelatory second floor is stabilized by the familiar arrangements of 'old acquaintances' on the ground floor. The Dining Room has been maintained as an ode to Frick's 18th-century collection of British portraits, Chinese vases, and English silver. The handsome Library resumes the display of English portraiture, including the much admired 'Julia, Lady Peel' by Sir Thomas Lawrence, as well as landscapes, small Italian bronze sculptures, and even one of the quintessential American portraits of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart. Library Gallery on the main floor of the Frick. Joseph Coscia Jr./The Frick Collection The pictures in the Living Hall continue to be hung exactly as Frick arranged them in his lifetime. A religious El Greco portrait sits over the mantle, sandwiched between The main floor Living Hall displays pictures exactly as Frick arranged them in his lifetime. Joseph Coscia Jr./The Frick Collection The West Gallery is a heady runway display of additional treasures, which include one of the museum's three Vermeers, the last picture ever bought by Frick; Turner port scenes; a Rembrandt self-portrait; a royal Velázquez; and allegorical Veroneses. Like much of the ground floor, at first glance it appears unchanged. Of course, every original Frick gallery has been cleaned and touched up, from paint, plaster, and polish to critical state-of-the-art infrastructure updates. All of the skylights, including those in the West Gallery were replaced. The new windows have ultraviolet-protected glass, improving significantly the lighting conditions. The West Gallery is a main floor attraction at the Frick Collection. Joseph Coscia Jr./The Frick Collection The room's distinctive green silk velvet wall coverings have been reproduced, hand-loomed by the historic Prelle firm based in Lyon, France. The same company made the original fabric, which consists of three shades woven together, in 1914. Another example of a feature that may appear initially the same but is actually greatly improved is the small 70th Street Garden, viewable from the Reception Hall, the street, and several newly built vantage points. This cherished green space was created in 1977 by the legendary British garden designer and landscape architect Russell Page after the demolition of an adjacent townhouse opened the lot. It is unusual on several accounts, including that it is a viewing garden only and not meant to physically host visitors. East 70th Street façade of The Frick Collection. Nicholas Venezia/The Frick Collection The Frick's original renovation plans would have superseded this space, but public outcry led to its preservation and revitalization by celebrated public landscape designer Lynden Miller. In a Frick Collection video, Miller says that she is 'always thinking about seasons and texture and form, but also the spaces in between. Russell Page was very determined that the trees were not lined up the way you would think they'd be. They're all a little bit off, so he wanted you to see the verticals of the trunks, and so they're meant to make a beautiful shape against the walls.' The visionary Page was preoccupied with new ways of seeing, just like all of the talented architects, conservators, curators, gardeners, and other experts involved in the monumental, sensitively executed renovation. The renewal has created a palpable and enthusiastic energy that radiates from the friendly guards to the eager visitors. This project will allow The Frick Collection to continue to be a beacon of beauty and serenity for future generations. What arts and culture topics would you like us to cover? Please email ideas or feedback to
New York Times
15-03-2025
- General
- New York Times
The Frick Glows With a Poetic, $220 Million Renovation
A corner of New York hasn't seemed quite itself since the Frick Collection shuttered during Covid for the architectural equivalent of a full-body spa treatment. For a while the museum that luxuriates in Henry Clay Frick's Beaux-Arts mansion on Fifth Avenue decamped with its old masters and other art to Marcel Breuer's former Whitney Museum a few blocks away. Seeing Bellini's 'St. Francis in the Desert' in a Brutalist building felt like coming across your high school chemistry teacher on spring break in Cocoa Beach. Next month the Frick reopens after its $220 million expansion and refurbishment. Fretful preservationists have been pinging my inbox for years, venting their anxieties about tampering with one of the city's architectural treasures. I bear good tidings. The expansion is about as sensitive and deft as one could hope for. At moments, as in a voluptuous new marble staircase and airy auditorium, it approximates poetry. It probably won't quiet all the critics. Grumblers will be grumblers. But it does what was intended. It moves the Frick squarely into the 21st century and seamlessly solves multifarious problems. And where it counts, it leaves well enough alone. The architect is the German-born, New York-based Annabelle Selldorf. She and her colleagues at Selldorf Architects paired with Beyer Blinder Belle, another New York firm, and with the garden designer Lynden B. Miller. These days, Selldorf is a go-to architect for thorny projects like this. In London she is updating a hotly contested wing of the National Gallery designed in the 1990s by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown. Frick's mansion, completed in 1914, was designed by the firm of Carrère and Hastings, which gave New York the 42nd Street Library. In 2001, Selldorf made her bones converting another Carrère and Hastings landmark from 1914, the onetime Vanderbilt mansion, further up Fifth Avenue. With care and creativity, she morphed it into Ronald Lauder's state-of-the-art Neue Galerie. Expanding the Frick was a trickier task. It necessitated sacrifice. For starters, Selldorf has demolished the Frick's beloved music room that John Russell Pope, the august architect for the Jefferson Memorial, added when he oversaw the Frick's mansion-to-museum transformation during the 1930s. Pope doubled the building's footprint. Like others, I'm sad to lose the music room. Over the years, as opponents of its loss have taken to pointing out, it had become New York's version of a 19th-century salon. Truth be told, with 149 seats it was too small for many events, and its acoustics were mediocre. It also occupied the ideal spot to put new galleries for temporary exhibitions, which the Frick needed and were crucial to Selldorf's plan. So that's what has happened. Selldorf installed three new galleries. To replace the music room she excavated underneath the Frick's 70th Street garden, designing a technologically up-to-date, 218-seat auditorium, shaped a little like the inside of a clamshell. Past the new lobby, through a low vestibule, around a curved wood wall made of fluted walnut, you suddenly enter a surprisingly light and roomy hall, as white as an operating theater, mildly erotic with its curvaceous plaster walls. She then turned to the Frick's reception hall from the 1970s, which never quite worked. On crowded days, gaining entry to the museum could put you in mind of LaGuardia Airport on Thanksgiving eve. A convoluted ticket and coat check arrangement created logjams and funneled visitors into dead ends. Like a cardiologist, Selldorf has unclogged passageways, invented cunning lines of circulation and improved the reception hall. Its centerpiece is a showstopper: a new, cantilevered stairway, voluptuous and clad in veined, Breccia Aurora marble, decadent in a dolce vita sort of way. It nods to the grand staircase in the mansion. And it leads to a new second floor that Selldorf has surgically inserted above the hall to fit in a new connection with the mansion, a shop and a 60-seat cafe (the Frick may be the last museum on earth that lacked one) overlooking the gated, 70th Street garden. In 2014, the museum floated an earlier expansion proposal by a different architecture firm that imagined a blocky extension replacing the garden, which the British landscape architect Russell Page designed when the reception hall was built during the 1970s. The Frick assumed at the time that the garden would only be temporary, replaced when the museum needed to grow again. But with its reflecting pool, shaded pea gravel paths and wisteria, it was a Zenlike pause along the street and came to be prized by New Yorkers as one of those pocket-size serendipities of life in the city. Preservationists were aghast about the proposal to destroy it. The Frick backed off. Two years later it hired Selldorf and committed to keeping the garden. That proved easier said than done. Building the underground auditorium required ripping the garden up, then replanting it. It's still growing back. Selldorf treats the garden with deference, organizing her biggest, bulkiest addition — two new floors above where the music room used to be, adjoining an extension of Pope's nine-floor library at 71st Street — to carefully skirt the garden's north end. The addition repurposes a narrow yard, formerly hidden behind a garden wall, where the Frick stashed its lawn mowers and air conditioning units. A new education center (another first for the museum) occupies that space today, with the cafe above. Selldorf has then clad the whole puzzle-like addition in Indiana limestone, to match the mansion's exterior and unify an ultimately anodyne facade. The addition steps a couple of feet back where the cafe overlooks the garden, finessing room for a row of hornbeams. I was among those who urged the Frick back in 2014 to ditch the plan to demolish the garden, and I wrote a column that passed along some alternative ideas then making the rounds among New York architects. These included swapping Pope's music room for temporary exhibition spaces, excavating beneath the garden to construct another auditorium and redoing the reception hall by adding another floor. Sharing vague thoughts from the peanut gallery in the end resolves none of the challenges of redesigning 87,000 square feet of intricate space. Ideas can be realized differently and badly. Architecture happens in the trenches. Getting the Frick expansion right demanded a million complex decisions, as mundane but meaningful as choosing which varieties of marble, among the 138 different types already in the building, should tile the reception hall, and in which precise block pattern. And it is felt in gestures like that ledge for the hornbeams, whose subtle depth lends the garden a crucial whisper of breathing room. It entails connoisseurship, in other words, the stock in trade of the Frick. Buying art is one thing. Building a collection like the Frick's is another. Credit also goes to Ian Wardropper, the Frick director who oversaw the whole expansion and just retired last month. He was a steady hand at the heart of the museum. I mentioned earlier that the renovation knows when to leave well enough alone. The joy of visiting the Frick remains intact. The frisson of prowling around a robber baron's stuffy house is unchanged. Nothing is altered in the great rooms of Titians and Fragonards, save for wall coverings of hand-woven French silk damask and velvet, which have been scrupulously, and at formidable cost, replaced. The Garden Court is the same but with cleaned skylights and a fountain that now works as Pope intended for the first time in living memory. What's new is that visitors can, for the first time, wander up the mansion's grand staircase to the second floor and nose around the Frick family's former bedrooms, repurposed as galleries for Chinese porcelain, Renaissance medals, Bouchers and Constables. What used to be a bathroom is hung with French Rococo pictures. The number of objects on view from the permanent collection has doubled. I look forward to when the garden blooms. Good news is in short supply these days. The Frick reopens in mid-April. The city already feels lighter.
