Final Months Include Special Installations, Exclusive Member Offerings, and Free Public Programs
This winter, New Yorkers and other art enthusiasts will have their final opportunity to experience Frick Madison, the acclaimed temporary home of The Frick Collection. Frick Madison will close its doors on March 3, 2024, as the institution begins preparing for its move back to its historic home at 1 East 70th Street, which is now nearing the completion of a significant renovation and enhancement project. The museum and library will reopen in the Frick’s newly renovated buildings in late 2024. Comments Ian Wardropper, the Frick’s Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Director, “We will savor our remaining weeks in the Breuer building, which has provided such a unique setting for our permanent collection during the past two and a half years. This remarkable space has provided up-close viewing opportunities for our reframed collections. We have enjoyed presenting the Frick’s iconic Vermeers, Rembrandts, and other Old Masters—as well as sculptures, porcelains, rugs, bronzes, and decorative arts objects—grouped in ways not possible in the historic mansion. The Frick’s beloved St. Francis in the Desert by Bellini, installed at Frick Madison in a chapel-like space, has been a particular favorite for visitors, many returning again and again to be inspired by this serene and moving masterpiece. Others consider the presentation of Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s Progress of Love—a “deconstructed Fragonard Room,” if you will—to be their favorite Frick Madison display, enjoying the eighteenth-century French panels by the light of architect Marcel Breuer’s signature trapezoidal window. It has been extremely gratifying to have our efforts at Frick Madison praised by Frick devotees and critics alike, which in turn has helped us to reach new audiences unfamiliar with the institution’s masterworks. During the next three months, we look forward to welcoming both new and returning visitors to be inspired one final time by Frick Madison, before closing the doors of this once-in-a-lifetime installation.”
The Frick’s residency at the Breuer Building has received overwhelmingly enthusiastic responses from media and visitors alike. Its 2021 opening was one of the year’s most talked-about cultural events in New York City. In addition to European masterpieces from the Renaissance through the early twentieth century shown on three floors of the landmarked Madison Avenue building, the museum has presented special exhibitions and contemporary installations, three of which will be on view with varying closure dates during Frick Madison’s final months. The most ambitious of these projects is Barkley L. Hendricks: Portraits at the Frick, on view through January 7, 2024. Featured as a “Critic’s Pick” by The New York Times and called “stunning” by The Wall Street Journal, the exhibition presents a powerful selection of Hendricks’s early revolutionary portraits of Black sitters, drawn from public and private collections. The fourteen monumental canvases, shown in two galleries, are meant to be considered within the broader context of the permanent collection of the Frick, which the late artist considered his favorite museum in the United States.
Also on view is the special installation Bellini and Giorgione in the House of Taddeo Contarini, which reunites for the first time in more than four hundred years the Frick’s iconic St. Francis in the Desert by Giovanni Bellini with Giorgione’s Three Philosophers, a rare loan from Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum. The New York Times called it “one of the most revelatory exhibitions to hit New York in years.” While the Frick’s St. Francis will remain on view through March 3, The Three Philosophers will be displayed only through February 4, 2024. In a nearby gallery visitors can enjoy Nicolas Party and Rosalba Carriera, a remarkable site-specific mural by the Swiss-born pastel artist Nicolas Party, who was inspired by an eighteenth-century pastel portrait by Venetian Rococo artist Rosalba Carriera from the Frick’s permanent collection. Occupying three walls in the museum’s Italian galleries, the mural is presented with the Rosalba pastel and two especially created portraits by Party, who is considered the pre-eminent pastellist working today. The installation will remain on view through March 3, 2024.
FREE PUBLIC PROGRAMS OFFER FRESH ENCOUNTERS WITH ART AT FRICK MADISON
Supporters of the Frick will be able to take part in a number of exclusive opportunities—including Member Appreciation Month in January (visit frick.org/calendar for full details). Free public programs and community events will be offered as well, with two Gray-Krehbiel Open Nights on Friday, December 8, 2023, and Friday, February 2, 2024. Accessibility services will be provided when available for all programs.
Gray-Krehbiel Open Night: Barkley L. Hendricks at the Frick
Friday, December 8, 2023, 5 – 9 p.m.
Celebrate the must-see exhibition Barkley L. Hendricks: Portraits at the Frick with a free evening at Frick Madison! Enjoy after-hours access to the show along with all the galleries and the Frick Art Reference Library’s reading room. The event will include sketching, themed talks (with assistive listening devices and American Sign Language interpretation available), live music, and complimentary refreshments from The SisterYard. More details and registration.
Gallery Conversation: Bellini and Giorgione in the House of Taddeo Contarini
Friday, January 12, 2024, 6 – 7 p.m.
Through close looking and lively discussion, explore two Italian Renaissance masterpieces by Bellini and Giorgione, on view in our special installation. Active participation is encouraged in this free, after-hours gallery program at Frick Madison. More details and registration.
Sketch Night at Frick Madison
Friday, January 19, 5 – 7 p.m.
Enjoy the galleries and draw at your own pace during this in-person sketching program at Frick Madison. Art materials will be provided and participants will be encouraged to sketch independently in the Third Floor galleries, which feature two special presentations: Bellini and Giorgione in the House of Taddeo Contarini and Nicolas Party and Rosalba Carriera. This program is free, but online registration is required; registration includes after-hours access to selected galleries. More details and registration.
Gallery Conversation: Bellini and Giorgione in the House of Taddeo Contarini
Friday, January 26, 2024, 6 – 7 p.m.
Through close looking and lively discussion, explore two Italian Renaissance masterpieces by Bellini and Giorgione, on view in our special installation. Active participation is encouraged in this free, after-hours gallery program at Frick Madison. More details and registration.
Gray-Krehbiel Open Night: Bellini and Giorgione
Friday, February 2, 2024, 5 – 9 p.m.
Take part in the final free evening at Frick Madison! Enjoy after-hours access to the galleries—including special installations Bellini and Giorgione in the House of Taddeo Contarini and Nicolas Party and Rosalba Carriera—and the Frick Art Reference Library’s reading room. The evening also includes sketching, themed talks (with assistive listening devices and American Sign Language interpretation available), live music, and complimentary refreshments from The SisterYard. More details and registration.
Last-Look Gallery Talks
Saturdays, February 10 through March 2
Gallery talks will be offered throughout the day on each of the final four Saturdays at Frick Madison. Frick educators will offer insights into permanent collection works including Fragonard’s Progress of Love series, Gainsborough’s The Mall in St. James’s Park, and El Greco’s Purification of the Temple, as well as the special installation Nicolas Party and Rosalba Carriera. More details will be announced at frick.org/programs.
ABOUT THE FRICK COLLECTION AND FRICK MADISON
The historic buildings of The Frick Collection are currently closed for renovation and enhancement, their first comprehensive upgrade since the 1930s. For the duration of the renovation project, the collections of the museum and library remain accessible to the public at Frick Madison, the Marcel Breuer–designed building at 945 Madison Avenue that was once the home of the Whitney Museum of American Art and, most recently, The Met Breuer. Now in its final months, the temporary residency ensures that the public can continue to enjoy the Frick’s masterpieces, while also giving the museum a unique opportunity to reimagine its presentation of paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts within a completely different context. Frick Madison remains open through March 3, 2024.
Honoring the institution’s architectural legacy and unique character, the renovation plan designed by Selldorf Architects will provide unprecedented access to the original 1914 residence of Henry Clay Frick, while preserving the intimate visitor experience and beloved galleries for which the Frick is known. Conceived to address pressing institutional and programmatic needs, the plan will create new spaces for permanent collection display and special exhibitions, conservation, education, and public programs, while improving visitor amenities and overall accessibility. The Frick Collection reopens at 1 East 70th Street in late 2024.
Images: Visitors in the Fragonard gallery at Frick Madison, photo: Joseph Coscia Jr; visitor in the special exhibition Barkley L. Hendricks: Portraits at the Frick, photo: Cris Sunwoo; installation view of Bellini and Giorgione in the House of Taddeo Contarini, photo: Joseph Coscia Jr.
INTERACT
@FrickCollection
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Basic Information
Website: frick.org
Building project: frick.org/renovation
Bloomberg Connects app: frick.org/app
Frick Madison visitor address: 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street, New York, NY 10021
Museum hours: Thursday through Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.; closed Monday through Wednesday. See website for holiday schedule.
Admission: Timed tickets are strongly recommended and may be purchased online. $22 general public; $17 seniors and visitors with disabilities; $12 students. Free admission is granted to visitors ages 10–17. Admission is always free for members. Pay-what-you-wish admission is offered Thursdays from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Please note: Children under ten are not admitted to the museum.
Visitor guidelines: frick.org/visit/guidelines
Ticket purchase link: frick.org/tickets. For questions: admissions@frick.org
Group reservations: For questions: groupreservations@frick.org
Public programs: frick.org/calendar
Shop: Open during museum hours as well as online daily.
Refreshments: A light menu, offered by The SisterYard, is available on the lower level during museum hours.
Subway: #6 local to 77th Street station; #Q to 72nd Street station. Bus: M1, M2, M3, and M4 southbound on Fifth Avenue to 75th Street and northbound on Madison Avenue to 74th Street
Museum mailing address: 1 East 70th Street, near Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10021
Photography: Allowed only in the Frick Madison Lobby.
Reading room: Access is offered by appointment Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. For further information, visit frick.org/tickets.