Ian Wardropper to Depart as Director of Frick

The Frick Collection today announced that Ian Wardropper, who has served as the New York museum’s director since 2011, will retire in 2025. The institution described Wardropper’s fourteen-year tenure as “transformative,” highlighting his stewardship of the museum’s $195 million renovation, which saw industrialist Henry Clay Frick’s trove of old master paintings and European fine and decorative arts displayed temporarily at the Breuer Building at 945 Madison Avenue. The installation of the collection in the Brutalist structure—the former home of the Whitney Museum of American Art and, later, of the Met Breuer—placed ornately framed masterworks in vivid contrast with the 1966 building’s stark, nearly windowless confines, garnering freshattention. The Frick is set to move back to the elegant Gilded Age mansion in which it has historically been housed, at Fifth Avenue and East Seventieth Street,later this year.RelatedPOLAND ANNOUNCES ARTIST CHANGE FOR 2024 VENICE BIENNALENAZI-LOOTED DUTCH PAINTING RETURNED TO GOUDSTIKKER HEIR “Ian has led the institution through one of the most transformative and dynamic periods in its history, ensuring that the Frick’s core characteristics of intimacy and excellence are maintained,” said Frick board chair Elizabeth M. Eveillard in a statement.

“His vision for the Frick’s future addresses the needs of a twenty-first-century museum and library and its audiences, while safeguarding our collections and historic buildings for current and future generations.” Besides shepherding the Frick through its historic renovation, much of which took place during the Covid-19 crisis, Wardropper led numerous fundraising initiatives, expanded the museum’s board, oversaw important acquisitions, and successfully helmed an effort to increase membership ranks. As well, he sought to make the Frick more accessible and to bring it into the twenty-first century, hosting talks and performances by artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, and dancers who were influenced by works in the institution’s collection, and presenting the works of top contemporary artists such as Arlene Shechet and Barkley L. Hendricks alongside the museum’s stately old master paintings. “These fourteen years at the Frick will have been among the most rewarding of my career,” said Wardropper in a statement. “From the first strategic plan developed together with the Frick’s dedicated trustees and talented staff, we identified our aspirations and priorities and committed to the values and programs that make the Frick unique.

It has been a great privilege to realize these initiatives during my tenure, the reopening of our upgraded buildings being a highlight among many. Following my retirement from the Frick, I look forward to working on a number of scholarly and academic projects.” Wardropper will oversee the Frick’s move back to its original home, while the board searches for a suitable successor..