Frick Portico Gallery Opens with Exhibition of Promised Gift of Meissen Porcelain

On December 13, visitors to The Frick Collection will be able to enjoy a new gallery-the first major addition to the museum's display spaces in nearly thirty-five years.

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. The project was postponed in 1917 following the United States entry into World War I and Mr. Frick died before it could be resumed. In recent years, the institution has placed greater focus on sculpture through critically acclaimed exhibitions and several key acquisitions, while also evaluating the effectiveness of the display and lighting of such objects.

Another area of increased focus has been the decorative arts. When talks began with renowned porcelain collector Henry H. Arnhold about a promised gift, the idea to create a gallery both for sculpture and the decorative arts was revisited. The architecture firm Davis Brody Bond developed a plan to integrate the outdoor garden portico into the fabric of the museum, and groundbreaking occurred last winter. Davis Brody Bond is one of the leading practices in the United States engaged in a range of museum and landmark structure commissions. The firm's cultural portfolio includes the National September 11 Memorial Museum, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture, and over twenty years of restoration and expansion work at the New York Public Library. The Portico Gallery for Decorative Arts and Sculpture opens in mid-December with an inaugural exhibition of works drawn from Henry Arnhold's promised gift of 131 examples of Meissen porcelain from the early years of this Royal Manufactory's production.

On view through April 29, 2012, White Gold: Highlights from the Arnhold Collection of Meissen Porcelain will feature approximately seventy of these objects, presented along with a group of eighteenth-century sculptures by Jean-Antoine Houdon (1740-1828). Among the latter works is the full-length terracotta Diana the Huntress, a signature work at the Frick that returns to view having been recently cleaned and treated. It finds a permanent home in the new portico gallery, while the ongoing display of other sculptures and ceramics will rotate periodically.

Pair of vases, Meissen porcelain, c.1725-30, H: 24 ¾ inches and 24 1/8 inches, The Arnhold Collection; Photo: Maggie Nimkin
expressed by Henry Clay Frick nearly ninety-five years ago concerning the display of sculpture. It will become the permanent home of Houdon's Diana the Huntress while offering additional space for the presentation of decorative arts objects. Appropriately, our inaugural exhibition previews the generous promised gift of Henry Arnhold, whose family collection of Meissen will complement beautifully our holdings in French and Asian porcelains and whose foundation underwrote the costs of construction. The light-filled, enclosed portico also offers an enchanting new vista of Henry Clay Frick's private garden, and we very much look forward to sharing all of these attributes with the public."