Online Exhibitions
The Library's exhibition program went online in 2011, allowing Web site visitors from around the world to enjoy its collections.
The Frick and La Serenissima: Art from the Venetian Republic
This exhibition explores details in paintings by Paolo Veronese and Francesco Guardi in The Frick Collection, including connections to the music of the Venetian Republic.
A Comfortable Well Arranged Home
On November 17, 1914, Henry Clay Frick and his wife moved into their new residence at 1 East 70th Street, now home of The Frick Collection. An online exhibition to mark the 100th anniversary of this event was created by the Archives of The Frick Collection and Frick Art Reference Library, and draws upon documents and photographs to tell the story of the house's planning, construction, furnishing, and early days.
All Things Dutch
From October 2013 through January 2014, one of Vermeer's most famous paintings, Girl with a Pearl Earring, was on view at The Frick Collection. That work, along with paintings by Rembrandt, Fabritius, and others, were on loan from the Mauritshuis in the Netherlands, which is currently undergoing renovation. To honor the occasion, the Archives Department of The Frick Collection and Frick Art Reference Library prepared a selection of items documenting travels of the Frick family to the Netherlands, along with materials regarding Henry Clay Frick's acquisition of works by Rembrandt and Vermeer.
Frick During World War II
During World War II, the Frick Art Reference Library joined the international effort to protect cultural treasures from the destruction of war, inviting the Committee of the American Council of Learned Societies on Protection of Cultural Treasures in War Areas to headquarter their operations at the Library. Library staff assisted Committee members, preparing maps and lists locating art treasures and monuments across Europe. Used by Allied forces (from bomber pilots to Monuments Men) to identify and protect Europe’s cultural legacy, these maps and resources were an invaluable contribution to the effort.
Documenting the Gilded Age
Phase 4: Documenting Art Collections in Gilded Age New York: Historical Resources at the Frick Art Reference Library, 2015
Phase 3: Gilding the Gilded Age: Interior Decoration Tastes & Trends in New York City, 2013
Phase 2: Documenting the Gilded Age: New York City Exhibitions at the Turn of the 20th Century, 2012
Phase 1: Documenting the Gilded Age: New York City Exhibitions at the Turn of the 20th Century, 2011
This project to digitize historical library materials that document art collections in Gilded Age New York has been made possible by support from the Metropolitan New York Library Council’s Digitization Grant Program. The online exhibitions created by library staff highlight each phase of the project by providing narrative historical context to the materials. Phase 1 and phase 2 were projects of the Frick Art Reference Library and Brooklyn Museum Libraries and Archives that digitized ephemeral exhibition checklists, pamphlets, and catalogs from eleven historically significant galleries, society clubs, and arts associations operating from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century. Phase 3 was a project of the Frick Art Reference Library and the William Randolph Hearst Archive at Long Island University that digitized auction catalogs and archival materials for the aforementioned time period, with a focus on decorative arts. Phase 4 features catalogues of private art collections held at the Frick Art Reference Library, including those of prominent industrialists and notable women, as well as unnamed or less well-known collectors.
"This Kiss to the Whole World": Klimt and the Vienna Secession
The New York Art Resources Consortium (NYARC) — a collaboration between the Frick Art Reference Library and the libraries of the Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of Modern Art — has extensive holdings of materials relating to artist Gustav Klimt (1862–1918). To correspond with the citywide Vienna: City of Dreams program organized by Carnegie Hall in the spring of 2014, NYARC presents this exhibition of its Vienna Secession (Union of Austrian Artists) catalogs and other related materials for the period that Klimt, as a founding member, was involved. Notable exhibitions that took place during this time period include the fourteenth exhibition (1902), which was designed by Josef Hoffmann (1870–1956) and centered around tributes to Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) , as well as the eighteenth exhibition (1903) devoted to Klimt's work and designed by Koloman Moser (1868–1918).
An Illustrated Dutch Translation of Virgil’s Aeneid by Sebastiaen Vrancx
The Library's Photoarchive inaugural online exhibition reunites all of the known drawings Sebastiaen Vrancx created to illustrate his own Dutch translation of Virgil’s Aeneid. In 1990, the journal Master Drawings first published and attributed the series to Vrancx, but because of space limitations, only ten of the drawings were illustrated. A more recent addendum to that article in the same journal appeared in 2013, with just five illustrations. This online exhibition shows all forty-seven images to the public for the first time.
Past Exhibitions
From 2000 to 2011, the Frick Art Reference Library offered visitors small-scale displays that highlighted often overlooked aspects of its research and archives collections. Below is a listing of past Frick Art Reference Library exhibitions and links to their brochures.
