The Frick Collection has opened a new gallery—the first major addition to the museum in nearly thirty-five years. Located on the Fifth Avenue side of the historic mansion, it was created by enclosing a covered garden portico.
Model of the proposed Portico for Decorative Arts and Sculpture, south façade, by Davis Brody Bond Aedas Architects and Planners
The Portico Gallery made its debut this week with an exhibition of early Meissen porcelain from The Arnhold Collection, selections from a promised gift. Also on view are two works by the French Enlightenment sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon (1740– 1828). His masterpiece Diana the Huntress has returned to view after a two-year absence during which time the life-sized terracotta was conserved and cleaned. This iconic Frick work now finds a glorious new home in the Portico Gallery and is visible for the first time not just to the Frick’s visitors but to those outside the museum on Fifth Avenue.
The inspiration for this initiative, which involves the enclosure of the portico in the Fifth Avenue Garden, comes from the intention of museum founder Henry Clay Frick (1849–1919) to build an addition to his 1914 mansion for his growing collection of sculpture. – www.frick.org