Past Exhibition

The Frick presents an installation inspired by the institution’s acclaimed Diptych publication series. In conjunction with a Diptych focused on Claude Monet’s Vétheuil in Winter, the Frick is installing a new work created for the occasion by Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967, Denmark) alongside the Monet painting, one of the museum’s few Impressionist works. The Diptych, which will be released simultaneously, features a text by Eliasson and an essay by Frick Curator Emerita Susan Grace Galassi. Each book in the Diptych series, which was launched in 2018, focuses on a single work in the collection, pairing an illuminating essay by a curator with a contribution from a contemporary cultural figure.

Monet painted the snowy Vétheuil scene in 1878–79, during the first of two extremely harsh winters he and his family spent in the remote village on the banks of the Seine, midway between Paris and Rouen. Presented alongside the Monet will be a new work by Olafur Eliasson, whose practice embraces a variety of media and often investigates light, color, and perception to heighten our understanding of each other and our surroundings.

Eliasson began his ongoing Colour experiment series in 2009, inspired by the idea of producing a new, comprehensive color theory that would comprise all the visible colors of the prism. Created on round canvases, often with holes in the center, the works in this series derive their palettes from paintings by artists such as J. M. W. Turner and Caspar David Friedrich and, more recently, from the artist’s own photographs of his native Iceland. 

The installation is organized by Xavier F. Salomon, Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator.