The New Face at the Frick
The days of the Breuer Building as a museum are waning. The brutalist structure on Madison Avenue was recently acquired by Sotheby’s, and the Frick Collection, which has been the building’s tenant since 2021, will hand over the keys at the end of next year. Until then, however, the place seems intent on flexing its muscle.
An exhibition of work by Barkley L. Hendricks (1945–2017), curated by Aimee Ng and Antwaun Sargent, is chief among these efforts. Beginning September 21, paintings by Hendricks, the first artist of color to have a solo show at the museum, will hang alongside the Old Masters the Frick is known for, creating a connection between past and present. “The Frick was one of Hendricks’s favorite museums, and I wanted to show him at the height of his technical ability and range,” says Ng.
Admiration isn’t the only connection; there’s also technique. In Lawdy Mama (1969), the hair of his subject stands in for a halo, and the gold leaf background recalls Renaissance paintings. “Hendricks’s work feels so contemporary in this moment,” Ng says. “I think he was too modern for his own time.”
Woody
1973
APB’s (Afro-Parisian Brothers)
1978
Misc. Tyrone (Tyrone Smith)
1976
Lagos Ladies (Gbemi, Bisi, Niki, Christy)
1978
Steve
1976
This story appears in the September 2023 issue of Town & Country.
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