Enclosing a Frick Portico Would Create a Gallery

Davis Brody Bond Aedas Architects and Planners
The model of the proposed glass-enclosed portico, which would house sculpture and decorative objects at the Frick Collection.

Published: June 10, 2010

Seeking to create a new gallery for sculpture and decorative objects, the Frick Collection is planning to enclose in glass the portico on the north side of its Fifth Avenue garden. The design, by the New York architectural firm Davis Brody Bond Aedas, needs approval from the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, which will receive a formal presentation on Tuesday.

In this age of ambitious museum expansions, the notion of remodeling a 665-square-foot space would be a footnote for most institutions. But not the Frick. “This is a very big project for us,” Anne L. Poulet, the Frick’s director, said the other day as she stood in the library gallery, looking toward the portico’s majestic limestone columns and intricately carved cornices.

The institution, she explained, has undertaken only three building projects: the house itself, which was designed by Thomas Hastings and commissioned by Henry Clay Frick, the coal and steel magnate, in 1913 (it opened to the public in 1935); an expansion designed by John Russell Pope, which doubled the size in the early 1930s; and the addition of the 70th Street garden, reception hall and lower-level galleries in 1977.

The impetus for the newest project is a promised gift of more than 100 pieces of rare porcelains from an anonymous collector. The donor’s foundation has agreed to pay to enclose the portico, where the gift will be displayed.

Ms. Poulet said it was too early to say how much construction would cost because “we didn’t want to put out bids until we had landmark approval.”

The architects, who studied the Frick’s archives to better understand the building’s history, have come up with a minimally invasive design. It will consist of a series of glass enclosures that do not disturb the columns or other architectural embellishments and can be removed without making any changes to the existing architecture. The portico will also feature movable pedestals on which to display the Frick’s collection of sculptures, including works like “Diana the Huntress,” by Jean-Antoine Houdon, which is currently in storage.

The institution has been enhancing its galleries in recent years, subtly refurbishing rooms when they begin to look shabby and upgrading the lighting — all part of an effort to give visitors a reason to keep coming back. Years ago the Frick considered more grand schemes, including underground galleries beneath its Fifth Avenue garden, but for now it is happy to work within its existing footprint.

“This has basically been an underutilized, dead space,” Ms. Poulet said of the portico. The notion of a home for sculptures echoes something Frick himself had pondered. “He moved into the house in 1914 and already by 1915 he asked for drawings of a sculpture gallery where the oval room is now,” she added. “Then came the war, and he thought it would be inappropriate to go forward, and he died in 1919. Although this is not in the same place, we see it as a fulfillment of his vision.”

JOHNS ‘FLAG’ RESURFACES

Often when important artworks are sold at auction, they disappear for decades. But Jasper Johns fans will have a second chance to see the “Flag” painting that once belonged to the writer Michael Crichton and was sold by his estate at Christie’s in New York last month for $28.6 million.

“Flag,” from 1960-66, will be on view at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia from June 26 through Sept. 12.

“We don’t have a Jasper Johns, and we are not strong in works from the 1950s and 1960s,” said David R. Brigham, president of the academy. “But when I learned that the ‘Flag’ had been purchased by Avery Galleries, I was excited because we have a good relationship with them. So I asked if we could borrow it.”

Richard Rossello, president of Avery Galleries in Bryn Mawr, Pa., made the winning bid at Christie’s. At the time he said he was buying the painting on behalf of a collector who wanted to remain anonymous. Mr. Brigham said he did not know who owns the painting.

It was the collector who agreed to lend the painting to the academy. “It’s an icon of American art, and we are dedicated to the history of American art,” Mr. Bingham said. The painting will be on view by itself on the academy’s first floor. There will also be several exhibitions that feature art from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, including 50 works that have been donated by Herbert Vogel, a retired postal clerk, and his wife, Dorothy, a former librarian. The couple spent about 45 years and their life savings collecting Minimalist, Conceptual and post-1960s art. Also on view will be a group of Warhol Polaroids and black-and-white prints that are a gift to the academy from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

PRADO HAS U.S. ALLIANCE

The Prado Museum in Madrid is a generous lender to exhibitions around the world. But unlike the Louvre, which in 2004 struck a three-year agreement with the High Museum in Atlanta that included seven exhibitions drawn from Louvre collections, the Prado had not formed any sort of continuing alliance with an American institution. Now it too is working to get its name and collections better known here. This week it announced a three-year partnership with the Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, an institution with a permanent collection of Spanish works dating from the 10th century to today.

The collaboration will include the loan of major paintings — one a year — from the Prado as well as an internship exchange program between the two institutions. The first work to go to the Meadows will be El Greco’s “Pentecost.” The other works are Ribera’s “Mary Magdalene” and Velázquez’s portrait of “Philip IV.”

Mark Roglán, director of the Meadows, said that there was no loan fee to the Prado, but that his institution was covering all the costs involved in bringing the art to Dallas. “We chose paintings by artists where there could be more research and scholarship,” he said. “We take a multidisciplinary approach.”

For the Prado the loans help spread the museum’s name to younger audiences in America. “The Meadows is a museum devoted to Spanish painting, so they seemed a natural partner,” said Gabriele Finaldi, deputy director of the Prado. “This can be a way for people to get to know our collection.”