Flora Yukhnovich’s Four Seasons at the Frick

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Episode Transcript

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September 3rd. 2020. Five through March 9th. 2020.
Six Site Specific Installation Response to Frick S Holdings by
Francois Boucher The Frick Collection is pleased to
announce a new site specific installation by artist Flora
Yuknovich B United Kingdom 1990 in dialogue with Francois

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Boucher S series, The Four Seasons from the Museum S
permanent collection. Her mural will cover the walls
of the Frick S cabinet gallery, a remage and space dedicated to
the presentation of small scale displays and contemporary
interventions. Yuknovich will respond to
Boucher S work in her characteristic painting style, a

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blend of representation and abstraction which draws from art
historical traditions while boldly reinterpreting them.
Her immersive, energetic works, inspired by the French Rococo,
Italian Baroque, and Abstract Expressionist movements, are
both modern and timeless, reflecting a rigorous engagement
with the legacies of Western painting.

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Flora has clear admiration for the work of Boucher.
An artist who is well represented in our collection
makes her a natural fit for thisproject.
We are excited to have her fill the walls of our new cabinet
gallery, which was previously home to the Boucher Room,
recently reinstalled on the museum S 2nd floor, stated

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Xavier F Salomon, the Frick S deputy director and Peter J
Sharp, chief curator who initiated the collaboration,
Commented Yuknovich. Painting this mural for the
Frick has felt like stepping through 1 of Boucher S portals
into a world that S both imagined and eerily familiar.
I wanted to create a continuous landscape that blurs the

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boundaries between past and present, a space where
ornamentation, fantasy and reality collide.
It's been thrilling to explore how the language of the Rococo
can speak so powerfully to our own curated, hyper visual world.
Visitors will be able to view Boucher S Four Seasons nearby in
the West vestibule, where the series hung when the Frick

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family resided in the home. The Cabinet, which will house
the installation, is also the former site of the Museum S
Boucher Room, an 18th century French period room featuring
another series by Boucher. The arts and science is now a
highlight of the newly opened second floor galleries.

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Yuknovich S mural is the latest in a series of responses to the
Frick S permanent collection by living artists.
Past presentations of this kind include Porcelain, No Simple
Matter, Arlene Chechet and the Arnhold Collection, 2016 to 17
Elective affinities. Edmund Duvall at the Frick

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Collection, 2019. Living histories, queer views,
and Old Masters. 2021 to 22. Frick, Madison.
Propagation I Giuseppe Pinon at Sever. 2022 Frick.
Madison, Olafur Ilyassin and Claude Monet. 2022 to 23.

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Frick, Madison, Nicholas Pardi and Rosalba Carrier at. 2023 to
20. 4 Frick, Madison and Porcelain Garden Vladimir
Canefsky at the Frick Collectionthrough November 17th. 2020. 5
Boucher S Four Seasons Francois Boucher 17 O 3 to 1770 made the

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four paintings known as The FourSeasons in 1755 for Madame de
Pompadour, King Louis the 15th Slong term official mistress.
Their original location is unknown, but their unusual shape
suggests that they were used as overdoers no doubt in one of
Pompadour S many properties in France.

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Instead of the laborers that traditionally illustrate the
theme of The Four Seasons, Boucher depicts delightful,
amorous encounters in joyous colors.
In spring, a youth adorns his lover S hair with flowers.
A group of voluptuous bathing nudes represents summer.
In autumn, a young man offers a bunch of grapes to his

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fashionable beloved, and in winter a man pushes the heroine
through the snow on an elaboratesleigh.
This combination of luxury and seduction, all treated in a
fanciful, even humorous manner, is typical of the artist.
Henry Clayfrick came into possession of The Four Seasons
in 1916 when he acquired the series directly from the

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American heiress and art dealer Virginia Bacon.
He had long admired the works which had been coveted by other
major collectors. That same year, Frick also
acquired Boucher S Arts and Sciences to adorn the walls of
his wife S Adelaide Child's Frick S private boudoir on the
mansion S 2nd floor. Before the Frick Collection

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opened to the public in 1935, this series was reinstalled in a
first floor gallery known as theBoucher Room.
During the museum S recent renovation, the entire room was
returned to its original location upstairs.
Boucher S Bride Playful scenes now grace both floors of the

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museum, delighting viewers as they did in the house a century
ago. Public Programming The
installation will be featured ina number of engaging public
programs. Yuknovich will discuss her mural
and process at a lecture in Early. 2020.
Six in the museum S new Stephen A Schwartman Auditorium.

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The display will also serve as asource of inspiration for
artists of all levels in the popular free Sketch Night event
series. Programming details will be
shared at fric.org. Programs accompanying
publication The installation will be accompanied by the
publication of a new volume in the acclaimed Phrychdiptic

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series, which illuminates a single masterpiece from the
permanent collection by pairing complementary essays by a
curator and a contemporary artist, musician, or other
cultural luminary. This volume will feature a text
by Yuknovich and an art historical essay by Salomon on
the significance of Boucher ES Beloved series.

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The hardcover publication of 80.Pages. 29.95 Member in store
price 23.96 features 40 color illustrations.
The book will be published in February. 2020.
Six. It may be pre-ordered online at
shop.fric.org, by emailing Shop at fric.org, or by calling to

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125476849. It will also be available for
purchase on site in the Museum Shop.
About Flora Yuknovich Born in Norwich, United Kingdom, in
1990, Yuknovich developed her characteristic painting language
as a student at City and Guilds of London Art School, where she

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completed her mock in 2017. Yuknovich held solo exhibitions
at the Wallace Collection in London and at Wardrop G Art in
Charlotte, inland Denmark. In 2020. 4 as well as an
exhibition at the University of Oxford S Ashmolean Museum in.
2023. Her work is held in prominent

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collections worldwide, includingthe Brooklyn Museum, New York,
the Government Art Collection, London, the Hirshhorn Museum and
Sculpture Garden, Washington DC,the Montreal Museum of Fine
Arts, and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.