Culture
Old Masters and contemporary ceramics at the Frick Collection
Edmund de Waal’s “That Pause of Space” sits beneath Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’ portrait, “Comtesse d’Haussonville”, (1845).
Image courtesy of: Lux Magazine, photographed by: Christopher Burke
When people think of visiting the Frick Collection in Manhattan, they typically think they will see lots of Old Master paintings. However, this May the museum opened its first ever collaboration between a contemporary artist and its permanent gallery collection.
Through November, “Elective Affinities: Edmund de Waal at The Frick Collection” will be open to visitors who want to experience more than the historic art and furnishings collected by the industrialist Henry Clay Frick. De Waal’s installations interact well with some of the museum’s most famous works, ones which the English ceramist visited as a teenager.
Edmund de Waal’s “On an archaic torso of Apollo”, 2019, is on view in the Fragonard Room.
Image courtesy of: Lux Magazine, photographed by: Christopher Burke
De Waal typically pushes the preconceived ideas of his discipline in that his installations create dialogue between art and space. In this exhibition, by contrasting the Old Master paintings and contemporary forms, de Waal brings up questions regarding time and reminding viewers to consider the context which is vital to the meaning of art. Finally, the specific placement of de Waal’s vessels offers a new perspective of the space they are within.
“From Darkness to Darkness”, 2019, is on view in the West Gallery. Sculptures are made from porcelain, steel, and plexiglass.
Image courtesy of: Arts NY, photographed by: Christopher Burke
Charlotte Vignon, the curator of Decorative Arts at the Frick and the installation’s organizer hopes that people will looks at the museum’s spaces through a new lens. De Waal’s pieces are placed randomly throughout the museum, with no labels or special lighting, similar to all the other works presented at the museum.
Visitors will receive a brochure about the show which includes a map and optional audio stops. Although some installations will be hard to miss (as they reach three feet in height), others are “hidden”.
Edmund de Waal’s “On living in an old country”, 2019, is made from porcelain, steel, gold, alabaster, aluminum, and plexiglass. This sculpture is on view in the Dining Room.
Image courtesy of: Arts Summery, photographed by: Christopher Burke
The installation in the Library is perhaps the most subtle. De Waal said about the Frick, “I’m convinced that Frick never read a book, and that the Library is a kind of ersatz English Library.”
In order to create space for his installation, de Waal removed “The Book of Wealthy”, a ten-volume work which was published in 1896, and replaced it with the installation that he dubbed, “An Alchemy”. The irony might be that steel is the medium from which Frick made his fortune… and here is a composition made from stacked steel blocks contained in three black vitrines.
Edmund de Waal’s “Steel Light I-V”,2019, is made from porcelain, steel, and gold. This piece is on view in the West Vestibule.
Image courtesy of: Arts Summery, photographed by: Christopher Burke
About his installation at the Frick Collection De Waal said, “My hope is that people will understand that this installation is a result of a lifetime-long love affair with this collection, that it’s an attempt to be in real conversation with art, with spaces, with how light changes within a building, with how you move through spaces. If that works, I’m happy.”
