The Frick Collection announced details about the transformation of the second floor of the original Frick residence, which will become accessible to the public for the first time when the institution reopens in its renovated and expanded home in late 2024. Designed by Selldorf Architects, with Beyer Blinder Belle serving as Executive Architect, the project marks the most comprehensive upgrade to the Frick since opening nearly ninety years ago. The mansion’s second floor originally served as the private living quarters of the Frick family and subsequently became the institution’s administrative offices after the residence was converted to a museum in 1935. The restoration of a suite of ten rooms and their transition into galleries will, for the first time, enable the public to experience more of the Frick’s historic buildings and remarkable collection, which has expanded significantly over the decades.
A highlight of the second floor will be the rare opportunity to experience two rooms as they were installed when the Frick family lived in the mansion. This includes a new gallery in what was the Frick family’s Breakfast Room and the Boucher Room, which is being returned to its original upstairs location in the private sitting room—or boudoir—of Adelaide Childs Frick, the wife of founder Henry Clay Frick. In a further series of second-floor galleries, visitors will experience installations inspired by the personal collecting interests of the Frick family through time, including beloved Renaissance gold-ground and Impressionist paintings. Also on view will be significant collections that have more recently entered into the museum’s holdings—some of which have yet to be regularly exhibited—ranging from ceramics to rare portrait medals and including the first permanent display of the Frick’s important clocks and watches collection.
Stated Ian Wardropper, the Frick’s Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Director, “Our renovation and enhancement project seamlessly integrates the old and new, while preserving the intimate visitor experience of the Frick’s art and architecture. With the opening of the mansion’s historic second floor, we will be able to showcase significantly more of our unparalleled collections, which have expanded in strategic and significant ways over the years through acquisitions and a number of individual and collection gifts. We cannot wait to welcome the public back to our revitalized home, where they can revisit beloved spaces and discover new aspects of our history, collection, and buildings.”
“The reopening of the Frick marks the first time in the museum’s history that the public will be able to access—via the grand staircase and new elevators—the historic mansion’s second floor,” said Xavier F. Salomon, the Frick’s Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator. “While in the grand galleries of the first floor, we will continue to present larger works, such as our remarkable panel by Bellini, full-length portraits by Gainsborough and Van Dyck, and monumental canvases by Fragonard, Veronese, and Whistler, we will now have the ability to spotlight artworks and objects of a more intimate scale in focused presentations in new second-floor rooms.”
