Agency Report –
New York City’s Frick Collection on the Upper East Side is to reopen to the public on April 17 following a major renovation led by acclaimed German architect Annabelle Selldorf.
German museum director Axel Rüger has been appointed to lead the prestigious institution into its next chapter.
Located in a former Gilded Age mansion across from Central Park in Manhattan, the museum had been closed since early 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic coincided with long-planned restoration work.
During the closure, highlights from its world-renowned collection – spanning from the Renaissance to the 19th century – were temporarily displayed in a nearby modernist building designed by architect Marcel Breuer, once home to the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Masterpieces from Rembrandt to Vermeer
The Frick is celebrated not only for its intimate setting but also for its masterpieces by artists such as Giovanni Bellini, Francisco de Goya, El Greco, Rembrandt, Auguste Renoir, JMW Turner and Jan Vermeer.
The historic building itself remains a major draw.
Steel magnate Henry Clay Frick (1849–1919) commissioned the mansion between 1912 and 1914 as a private residence. Including its gardens, the property spans nearly an entire city block.
After the deaths of Frick and his wife Adelaide, the home and its art collection were converted into a museum, which opened to the public in 1935.
Now, thanks to Selldorf’s extensive renovation – which included the addition of a café and, for the first time, visitor access to the upper floor – the Frick begins a new era.
The $220 million project was hailed by The New York Times as making the museum “shine” and being “worthy of a New York treasure.”
Selldorf: A ‘wonderful’ and ‘very emotional’ project
“It was an important, wonderful, major project,” Selldorf told dpa, describing the final phase of the renovation as “very emotional.”
Among her recent projects is the redesign of the National Gallery in London.
“Our projects, our buildings, are characterized by a certain self-confidence – not one that seeks attention, but one that gives off a slow aroma,” said the Cologne-born architect.
“In my world, it’s about daylight, about the proportions of spaces, about how you move from one room to the next, and how to preserve a sense of timelessness.”
Rüger, the museum’s new director, previously led the Royal Academy of Arts in London and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
He recently succeeded US curator and art historian Ian Wardropper as head of the Frick.
