Advanced Schedule of Exhibitions Through Spring 2017

PLEASE NOTE: The information provided below is a partial listing and is subject to change. Before publication, please confirm scheduling by calling the Media Relations & Marketing Department at 212-547-0710 or by e-mailing mediarelations@frick.org.

UPCOMING

Watteau’s Soldiers: Scenes of Military Life in Eighteenth-Century France
July 12, 2016, through October 2, 2016

Best known as a painter of amorous aristocrats and melancholy actors, Jean-Antoine Watteau also painted a number of military scenes, most executed during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14). Rather than the turmoil of battle, Watteau focused on the prosaic aspects of military life—marches, halts, and encampments. The resulting works show quiet moments between the fighting, outside the regimented discipline of drills and battle, when soldiers could rest and daydream, smoke pipes and play cards.

This summer, the Frick will present the first exhibition devoted to these captivating and little- known works. On display will be four of Watteau’s seven surviving military paintings and twelve red chalk studies, several of which are directly related to the paintings on view. Also included will be works by Watteau’s predecessors and followers. Together, they shed light on Watteau’s unique working method, affording the opportunity to probe what made his vision so distinctive. Watteau’s Soldiers: Scenes of Military Life in Eighteenth-Century France was organized by Aaron Wile, Anne L. Poulet Curatorial Fellow. Principal support was provided by an anonymous gift in memory of Melvin R. Seiden. Major support for the exhibition has also been provided by the David L. Klein, Jr. Foundation, Sally and Howard Lepow, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Aso O. Tavitian, with an additional contribution from Susannah Hunnewell Weiss. The catalogue was made possible by The Versailles Foundation, Inc.

Cagnacci’s Repentant Magdalene: An Italian Baroque Masterpiece from the Norton Simon Museum
October 25, 2016, through January 22, 2017

Guido Cagnacci (1601–1663) is among the most eccentric painters who worked in seventeenth-century Italy. His works, mostly religious in subject, are known for their unashamed, often unsettling, eroticism. Even though his pictorial style was influenced by some of the greatest Italian baroque painters—the Carracci, Guercino, and Guido Reni—his figurative language always remained individual and highly recognizable. The unconventionality of his work led to his being almost entirely forgotten during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. After exhibitions in Rimini and Bologna in 1952 and 1959, respectively, Cagnacci was rediscovered by Italian art historians and writers, but he still remains unjustifiably little known outside of Italy. Cagnacci’s ambitious Repentant Magdalene, a large canvas acquired in 1982 by the Norton Simon Art Foundation in Pasadena, California, is considered a masterpiece of seventeenth-century Italian art. For the first time since its acquisition almost thirty-five years ago, the painting will be loaned, traveling this fall from the Norton Simon Museum to New York’s Frick Collection. Accompanying the presentation will be the publication The Art of Guido Cagnacci by Xavier F. Salomon, Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator. The book will offer the first full account in English of the painter’s life and work. Principal funding for the exhibition is generously provided by the Robert H. Smith Family Foundation. Major support of the exhibition and of the accompanying book, The Art of Guido Cagnacci, has been provided by Fabrizio Moretti, with additional exhibition support from Ayesha Bulchandani-Mathrani and Mark Fisch and Rachel Davidson.

Pierre Gouthière: Virtuoso Gilder at the French Court
November 16, 2016, through February 19, 2017

The Frick Collection is organizing the first exhibition to focus on Pierre Gouthière (1732–1813), the great French bronze chaser and gilder who worked for Louis XV and Louis XVI. The exhibition will shed new light on the artist’s production, life, and workshop through the presentation of approximately thirty objects from public and private collections. Attributed with certainty to Gouthière, these works include clocks, vases, firedogs, wall lights, and mounts for Chinese porcelain and hard-stone vases. The exhibition and catalogue promise to transform our understanding of one of the greatest artists of eighteenth-century France.

Pierre Gouthière became a master chaser-gilder in 1758 during the reign of Louis XV. His works were so admired by Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette that in addition to commissioning objects directly, they also acquired masterpieces at the auction organized in December 1782 after the death of the Duke of Aumont, an avid admirer of Gouthière’s production. The exhibition will bring the finest works from private and public collections in Europe and the United States to New York for the first time. As part of the project, conservators undertook a technical study of Gouthière’s bronze and gilding techniques. The data provides both the basis for a much-needed re-evaluation of the attribution and chronology of Gouthière’s oeuvre and elucidates his workshop practices. This exhibition is organized by Charlotte Vignon, Curator of Decorative Arts, The Frick Collection, and is supported by the Michel David-Weill Foundation; the Selz Foundation; and two anonymous donors, one in memory of Melvin R. Seiden; with additional contributions from Alfredo Reyes of Röbbig Munich and Edward Lee Cave.

Turner’s Modern and Ancient Ports: Passages through Time
February 23, 2017, through May 14, 2017

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), nineteenth-century Britain’s greatest land- and seascape artist depicted ports throughout his career, both in monumental oil paintings and in watercolors. An insatiable traveler and an artist with a deep fascination with light, topography, and local traditions, as well as with classical antiquity, Turner brought an innovative approach to the depiction of modern ports as well as those of ancient times. In the spring of 2017, The Frick Collection will present Turner’s Modern and Ancient Ports: Passages through Time, a major exhibition that brings together some thirty-five works by the artist from the 1810s through the late 1830s in oil, watercolor, and graphite that capture contemporary cities in England, France, and Germany, as well as imagined views of classical ports. It will unite for the first time the museum’s two scenes Dieppe and Cologne with a closely related, yet unfinished, work from Tate Britain that depicts the modern harbor of Brest. The exhibition is organized by Susan Grace Galassi, Senior Curator at The Frick Collection, and leading Turner scholar Ian Warrell. It will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, published in association with Yale University Press. The exhibition is made possible in part by The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation.

CURRENT

Porcelain, No Simple Matter: Arlene Shechet and the Arnhold Collection
May 24, 2016, through April 2, 2017

This exhibition explores the complex history of making, collecting, and displaying porcelain. Included are 130 pieces produced by the renowned Royal Meissen manufactory, which led the ceramic industry in Europe, both scientifically and artistically, during the early to mid-eighteenth century. Most of the works date from 1720 to 1745 and were selected by New York−based sculptor Arlene Shechet from the promised gift of Henry H. Arnhold. Sixteen works in the exhibition are Shechet’s own sculptures—exuberant porcelain she made during a series of residencies at the Meissen manufactory in 2012 and 2013. Designed by Shechet, the exhibition avoids the typical chronological or thematic order of most porcelain installations in favor of a personal and imaginative approach that creates an intriguing dialogue between the historical and the contemporary, from then to now. With nature as the dominant theme, the exhibition will be presented in the Frick’s Portico Gallery, which overlooks the museum’s historic Fifth Avenue Garden. Porcelain, No Simple Matter: Arlene Shechet and the Arnhold Collection is organized by Charlotte Vignon, Curator of Decorative Arts, The Frick Collection. A fully illustrated booklet featuring a conversation with Arnhold, Shechet, and Vignon and installation images of the exhibition will be available in July. Major support for the exhibition is generously provided by Chuck and Deborah Royce, Melinda and Paul Sullivan, Margot and Jerry Bogert, and Monika McLennan.

Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture
March 2, 2016, through June 5, 2016

Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641), one of the most celebrated and influential portraitists of all time, enjoyed an international career that took him from his native Flanders to Italy, France, and, ultimately, the court of Charles I in England. Van Dyck’s elegant manner and convincing evocation of a sitter’s inner life—whether real or imagined—made him the favorite portraitist of many of the most powerful and interesting figures of the seventeenth century. His sitters—poets, duchesses, painters, and generals—represent the social and artistic elite of his age, and his achievement in portraiture marked a turning point in the history of European painting. Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture, on view only at New York’s Frick Collection, looks comprehensively at the artist’s activity and process as a portraitist. It is also the first major exhibition devoted to his work to be held in the United States in more than twenty-five years. Through approximately one hundred works, the show explores the versatility and inventiveness of a portrait specialist, the stylistic development of a draftsman and painter, and the efficiency and genius of an artist in action. Organized chronologically around the different geographic chapters of Van Dyck’s career, the exhibition documents the artist’s development from an ambitious young apprentice into the most sought-after portrait painter in Europe. The show also includes a small selection of comparative works by Van Dyck’s contemporaries, including Rubens, Jordaens, and Lely, and a special installation of the Iconographie, Van Dyck’s celebrated series of portrait prints. Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture was organized for The Frick Collection by Stijn Alsteens, Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and Adam Eaker, Assistant Curator of Northern Baroque Paintings in the Department of European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (and formerly Anne L. Poulet Curatorial Fellow and Guest Curator, The Frick Collection).

Principal support is provided by an anonymous donation with additional leadership contributions from The Honorable and Mrs. W. L. Lyons Brown and an anonymous gift in memory of Melvin R. Seiden. Major support has also been provided by Melinda and Paul Sullivan, The Christian Humann Foundation, Aso O. Tavitian, The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, John and Constance Birkelund, Mrs. Daniel Cowin, Margot and Jerry Bogert, Gilbert and Ildiko Butler, Fiduciary Trust Company International, Mrs. Henry Clay Frick II, the General Representation of the Government of Flanders to the USA, Howard S. Marks and Nancy Marks, and Dr. and Mrs. James S. Reibel, with additional contributions from Mr. and Mrs. Charles M. Royce, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Barbara G. Fleischman, Helen-Mae and Seymour Askin, George and Michael Eberstadt in memory of Vera and Walter Eberstadt, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Otto Naumann and Heidi D. Shafranek, the Robert Lehman Foundation, and an anonymous gift in memory of Charles Ryskamp. The exhibition is also supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

New Publications

Numerous publications and gifts are available through the Museum Shop of The Frick Collection, the Web site shopfrick.org, and by calling 212.547.6848.

Director’s Choice Guide

Director’s Choice: The Frick Collection joins other titles in Scala’s Director’s Choice series, in which directors of museums, galleries, and heritage sites worldwide (among them the Mauritshuis, the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, and the Dulwich Picture Gallery) select their personal favorites from among their institution’s holdings and tell us why these works matter to them. Ian Wardropper’s selection includes 38 works by artists such as Bellini, Constable, Fragonard, Goya, El Greco, Ingres, Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Whistler, as well as superb examples of French eighteenth-century furniture, Italian Renaissance bronzes, and Limoges enamels. Beautifully illustrated (paperback, 80 pages, 6 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches, $14.95, member price $13.46), the book is published by the Frick in association with Scala Arts Publishers, Inc.

Decorative Arts Handbook

The enamels, clocks and watches, furniture, gilt bronzes, porcelain, ceramics, silver, and textiles at The Frick Collection far exceed the number of paintings and are equal in quality. The institution recently published the first handbook devoted to the decorative arts in its collection. Helping to convey the balance among the various art forms represented in the house, it provides a valuable introduction to this area. The Frick Collection: Decorative Arts Handbook, written by Curator of Decorative Arts Charlotte Vignon, offers fresh insight on various works long in the museum’s holdings and also includes commentary on more recently acquired examples.