The Frick Collection announces details of its final year at Frick Madison, the acclaimed temporary home of the Upper East Side museum and library, as it looks ahead to the reopening of its renovated historic buildings on East 70th Street, planned for late 2024. Following the June 2023 debut of a site-specific mural created by Nicolas Party, Frick Madison will then feature a special exhibition of portraits by Barkley L. Hendricks, opening in September. The final special presentation at Frick Madison will provide a rare opportunity for the public to view St. Francis in the Desert (ca. 1475–80) by Giovanni Bellini—one of the most iconic works from the Frick’s permanent collection and considered by many to be the finest Renaissance painting in the United States—in dialogue with Giorgione’s Three Philosophers (ca. 1508/9). Both works were owned by Venetian collector Taddeo Contarini, and this installation will mark the first time in more than four hundred years that the two masterworks, which were both displayed for decades in Contarini’s palazzo, will be presented together. Bellini and Giorgione in the House of Taddeo Contarini will be on view at Frick Madison from November 9, 2023, through February 4, 2024. Frick Madison will remain open through March 3, 2024.
Wondering what’s next for the historic Breuer Building? It was announced on June 1st that Whitney Museum sold the building to Sotheby’s for about $100 million. Sotherby’s will move into the building in 2025.
Comments Ian Wardropper, the Frick’s Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Director, “Our residency at Frick Madison has been rewarding and productive, and we look forward to the remaining months of our time at 945 Madison Avenue, as we continue to gain new insights into our collection by seeing it reframed in this unprecedented way. We have been especially gratified to welcome new audiences to Frick Madison, as well as inspiring longstanding supporters through thought-provoking installations, new publications, and innovative programming. We’re delighted about our plans for the coming months while our renovation on East 70th Street continues apace.”
Adds Xavier F. Salomon, Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator, “This winter, following two contemporary installations in our galleries, we look forward to a very special focus on the painting that is perhaps most identified with our collection: Bellini’s St. Francis in the Desert. Presented in dialogue with Giorgione’s Three Philosophers in a chapel-like gallery at Frick Madison, the installation will pair the beloved paintings together again for the first time in more than four hundred years. I can’t think of a better coda for what has been a remarkable temporary home for our collection and staff during the critical renovation of our buildings.
Final Year at Frick Madison: Upcoming and Ongoing
Nicholas Party and Rosalba Carriera ~ June 1, 2023 through March 3, 2024
This summer, the Frick debuts a site-specific pastel mural by Swiss-born artist Nicolas Party (b. 1980), executed in the Italian Galleries at Frick Madison. The work is being created in response to Rosalba Carriera’s Portrait of a Man in Pilgrim’s Costume, a spectacular eighteenth-century pastel bequeathed to the museum in 2020 by Alexis Gregory, the founder of Vendome Press. This is the second installation to be inspired by a volume from the Frick’s popular Diptych series, each publication of which focuses on a single work from the collection, pairing an illuminating essay by a curator with a contribution from a contemporary cultural figure. Party’s mural will be the centerpiece of an upcoming book, Rosalba Carriera’s Man in Pilgrim’s Costume, co-authored by Party and Xavier F. Salomon.
Funding for the installation is generously provided by The Christian Humann Foundation and the David L. Klein, Jr. Foundation, with the support of the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.
Barkley L. Hendricks: Portraits at the Frick ~ September 21, 2023, through January 7, 2024
Barkley L. Hendricks (1945–2017) revolutionized contemporary portraiture with his vivid depictions of Black subjects that emphasize the dignity and individuality of his sitters. Beginning in the late 1960s, his work drew from and challenged traditions of European art, and The Frick Collection—with its iconic portraits by Rembrandt, Bronzino, Van Dyck, and others—was one of his favorite museums. Through a selection of some of Hendricks’s finest portraits displayed in the context of the Frick’s holdings, this exhibition celebrates and explores the remarkable work of this pioneering American painter with an unprecedented display of paintings drawn from private and public collections. Organized by Aimee Ng, Curator at the Frick, and Consulting Curator Antwaun Sargent, Barkley L. Hendricks: Portraits at the Frick considers the complex place of European painting in Hendricks’s art and the evolving role of the Frick in modern American culture. The accompanying catalogue features contributions by artists and creative figures including Derrick Adams, Nick Cave, Awol Erizku, Jeremy O. Harris, Rashid Johnson, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Fahamu Pecou, and Kehinde Wiley.
This exhibition is made possible with support from the Ford Foundation.
Additional funding is generously provided by Margot and Jerry Bogert, Bain Capital and The Crimson Lion / Lavine Family Foundation, Ayesha Bulchandani, Agnes Gund, the Cheng-Harrell Institute for Global Affairs, Jane Richards, Barbara G. Fleischman, Michael and Jane Horvitz, Arielle Patrick, Sterling McDavid and Carey Dorman, and an anonymous donor.
Bellini and Giorgione in the House of Taddeo Contarini ~ November 9, 2023, through February 4, 2024
On rare loan this fall and winter from Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum, Giorgione’s Three Philosophers joins the Frick’s beloved Bellini panel St. Francis in the Desert, providing an unprecedented opportunity for audiences to see the pair of paintings in dialogue. The two works were owned by the same Venetian collector, Taddeo Contarini, perhaps as pendants, and were displayed for many decades in his palazzo before their separation centuries ago. The presentation of these two icons together is curated by Xavier F. Salomon, who is authoring an accompanying book about the paintings and their original owner and his collection.
This installation is generously supported by David and Julie Tobey, Kathleen Feldstein, the Estate of Seymour R. Askin Jr., Jerald D. Fessenden, Gabelli Funds, and an anonymous donor.
The Frick Reframed ~ Ongoing through March 3, 2024
In a departure from the Frick’s customary presentation style, works at Frick Madison are organized on three floors chronologically and by region, allowing for fresh juxtapositions and new insights into treasured paintings and sculptures. Artists represented include 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 furniture, as well as rarely seen works and new acquisitions.
The Gregory Gift ~ Ongoing through July 9, 2023
Shown as a group for the first time at Frick Madison is a remarkable gift of twenty-eight fine and decorative works of art recently bequeathed to the museum by Alexis Gregory (1936–2020). The gift includes two eighteenth-century pastels, fifteen Limoges enamels, two eighteenth-century clocks, a large gilt-bronze figure of Louis XIV, and other objects made of metal, enamel, and hardstone dating from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. Founder of Vendome Press, a highly respected publisher of art and architecture books, Gregory built a major art collection over decades. He created a veritable Kunstkammer, a chamber or cabinet of curiosities displaying objects of diverse origins and materials and intended to impress, instruct, and stimulate.
This exhibition is generously funded by the Alexis Gregory Foundation.
About the Renovation Project ~ The Frick Collection is currently undergoing a comprehensive renovation and enhancement of its historic buildings, the institution’s first major upgrade since opening nearly ninety years ago in 1935. Designed by Selldorf Architects, with the preservation firm Beyer Blinder Belle as Executive Architect, the project honors the historic legacy and unique character of the Frick. Once complete, the project will provide unprecedented access to the original 1914 home of Henry Clay Frick; debut new galleries on the mansion’s second floor; create critical new resources for permanent collection
display as well as special exhibitions, conservation, education, and public programs; and upgrade visitor amenities and overall accessibility. At the same time, the project preserves the intimate visitor experience and beloved main- floor galleries for which the Frick is known, along with restoring the 70th Street Garden.
About The Frick Collection ~ Traditionally housed in one of New York City’s last great Gilded Age homes, for nearly ninety years The Frick Collection has provided visitors with an unparalleled opportunity for intimate encounters with one of the world’s foremost collections of fine and decorative arts. The house and collection originated with Henry Clay Frick (1849–1919), who bequeathed his Fifth Avenue home and collection of European paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts for the enjoyment of the public. The institution’s holdings, which encompass masterworks from the Renaissance through the early twentieth century, have grown over the decades, doubling in size since the opening of the museum in 1935. Adjacent to the Collection is the Frick Art Reference Library, founded more than one hundred years ago by Henry Clay Frick’s daughter Helen Clay Frick and recognized as one of the top resources of its kind in the world.
Frick Madison is located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street, NYC. Become a Member.
Read more about breaking ground and the extensive renovation at The Frick Collection, 1 East 70th Street, NYC.
Take a look back to March 18, 2021, when The Frick Collection opened its temporary doors at the former site of the Met Breuer and the Whitney Museum of American Art.