frick

Released by The Frick Art Reference Library, this database contains bibliographies, alternative names, and basic biographical information on more than 5,000 Spanish artists from the fourth to the twentieth century. Entries cross-reference materials from the Frick’s internationally-known photoarchive collection. The Dictionary links to other resources, such as Arcade and WorldCat, allowing researchers to easily locate items held at institutions worldwide related to a particular artist.

W. Graham Arader III, a noted art dealer and collector specializing in prints, maps and rare books generously donated seven richly illustrated books to the Frick Art Reference Library. The gift included the lavish facsimile edition of Joan Blaeu’s Atlas Major, the most comprehensive atlas at the time of its original publication in 1665, as well as a reproduction of the 1660 Harmonia Macrocosmica, a collection of celestial maps by Andras Cellarius. Mr. Arader is committed to further enhance the library’s collections, particularly in the areas of maps and natural history illustrations.
 

In 2007, The Frick Collection and Frick Art Reference Library established the Center for the History of Collecting in America. An important resource for the study of the history of collecting is the collection catalog, which documents items held by an individual, family, or institution at the time of its publication. The Frick Art Reference Library, as well as the other NYARC partners, holds many catalogs related to prominent and not-so-prominent art collections from around the world that are rich with useful information for the researcher piecing together provenance.

While the military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan wage on, NGOs, scholars, and governments from around the world have worked to raise awareness as well as to safeguard the wealth of cultural heritage currently at risk in the Greater Middle East, as evidenced in the recent exhibition Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met). 

JSTOR is collaborating with the Thomas J. Watson Library at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Frick Art Reference Library in a pilot project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to understand how auction catalogs can best be preserved for the long term and made most easily accessible for scholarly use. Auction catalogs are vital for provenance research as well as for the study of art markets and the history of collecting. Libraries, however, face a range of challenges with respect to their catalog collections, including preservation concerns and shelf space constraints.
 

Check out these NYARC library events and exhibitions featuring library materials from our collections:

Lost and Found: The Work of Bern Porter from the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art Library
The Museum of Modern Art
April 7-July 5, 2010

Paul Rosenberg and Company: From France to America
The Museum of Modern Art
January 27-April 5, 2010

The Frick Art Reference Library holds more than 88,000 auction catalogs dating from the seventeenth century to the present. These catalogs are essential for researchers establishing the provenance of an art object. One of the unique holdings of the Frick within this collection is artist atelier auction catalogs. An atelier auction sells the contents of an artist’s studio, usually shortly after his or her death. An example of this type of auction that relates to the collections of NYARC institutions is the atelier sales held in May and June of 1900 at Galerie George Petit, Paris, for the animal painter and sculptor Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899).