Axel Rüger has been appointed Director of the Frick Collection in New York, taking up his new position when the museum reopens in spring 2025. A graduate in art history from the University of Cambridge, he has extensive experience in museum management and curatorial management. He was Director of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam from 2006 to 2019, before joining the Royal Academy of Arts in London, where he worked for five years. Prior to that, he was Curator of 17th-Century Dutch Paintings at the National Gallery in London.
Axel Rüger’s arrival comes at an opportune time, as the museum, closed since 2018 for renovations, prepares to reopen. After years of renovations and a temporary move to the Breuer (until March 2024), the Frick Collection will reopen in spring 2025 with new spaces (3,900 m² more) dedicated to its permanent collections. The newly designed second floor will be open to the public, with a section dedicated to sculptures, ceramics, medals, drawings and paintings. A gallery housing decorative panels by François Boucher, accompanied by French furniture and 18th-century Sèvres porcelain, will enrich the collections. The first floor will feature three new galleries dedicated to temporary exhibitions.
The future expansion of the Frick collection
The imposing mansion, located on Fifth Avenue, facing Central Park, is a former neoclassical mansion that belonged to Henry Clay Frick, a wealthy American industrialist and collector. Transformed into a museum in 1935, the Frick Collection now houses 1,800 works, mainly European paintings from the Renaissance to the 20th century. The museum also has a collection of fine and decorative arts, recently completed by the acquisition of a major collection of medals in 2022. Recent acquisitions include works by Murillo, Moroni, and Gerard, as well as a Saint-Porchaire ceramic ewer and a pair of candelabra by Pierre Gouthière.
Ian Wardropper, who is retiring after 14 years at the helm of the museum and a 50-year career in the museum sector, modernized the museum’s image and led the 2018 expansion, which raised $290 million. He also boosted the museum’s appeal during the pandemic with the digital series “Cocktails With a Curator,” which generated 18 million views. Wardropper also connected the collections to contemporary art by inviting artists such as Doron Langberg, Salman Toor, Jenna Gribbon, and Toyin Ojih Odutola to engage with the museum’s permanent works, echoing paintings by Hans Holbein, Johannes Vermeer, and Rembrandt.
