The Frick Collection’s reopening after a five-year renovation has been heralded as a triumph. One of the wondrous things about visiting the museum right now is its special exhibition “Porcelain Garden: Vladimir Kanevsky at The Frick Collection,” on view through Oct. 6, 2025. Installed throughout the museum’s premises, including galleries on both the first and second floor and the Garden Court, are 19 breathtakingly intricate floral installations by the Ukrainian-born Kanevsky.
Cohesively installed alongside diverse fine and decorative arts from the institution’s permanent collection, these sculptures range in scale, form, and color. Each one enchants the viewer with its special blend of botanical accuracy and artistry.
Kanevky’s Floral Displays
"Lemon Tree," 2024–2025, by Vladimir Kanevsky is installed in the Garden Court. Soft-paste porcelain, parian body, glazes, and copper. The Frick Collection, New York City. (Joseph Coscia Jr.)
Kanevsky was born in 1951 in Kharkiv, Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union, but now lives and works in Fort Lee, New Jersey. While living in Russia, he studied architecture and sculpture, which proved to be integral foundations for his later porcelain practice. In 1989, he immigrated to New York—he had only $100 and spoke no English.
Kanevsky took another leap of faith when he responded to a job ad for an artist who could produce an 18th-century porcelain tureen in the shape of a melon. He attempted the commission, which came from a prominent interior designer with a shop on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The piece was a success. Then, Kanevsky explored porcelain flowers, as he had been fascinated by botany since childhood.
Detail of Vladimir Kanevsky’s "Lemon Tree," 2024–2025, in the Frick's Garden Court. (Joseph Coscia Jr.)
He compares floral structures to architecture, and he enjoys the technical challenges inherent in his work, which has been exhibited internationally, from Saint Petersburg’s State Hermitage Museum to Washington’s Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens. Tastemakers and style icons, including Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Oscar de la Renta, Valentino, and Martha Stewart have collected his work.
Kanevsky says that “Flowers are arguably the most prevalent topic in the history of art and architecture. Their cultural and symbolic significance offered infinite possibilities for artists.” His work is greatly inspired by traditional European porcelain dating to the 18th century, of which the Frick has a superb collection. The museum possesses examples from the leading French, German, and Viennese makers. An exquisite tableau in the exhibition inserts three Kanevsky tulips with delicate petals into a Du Paquier Manufactory vase. Each flower the artist makes is meticulously sculpted and hand-painted.
"Tulip Stems," 2024–2025, by Vladimir Kanevsky is installed in the Du Paquier Passage. Soft-paste porcelain, glazes, overglaze, and copper. The Frick Collection, New York City. (Joseph Coscia Jr.)
A Tribute to Helen Frick
The exhibition, the culmination of a three-year collaboration between the artist and the Frick’s curatorial team, is an homage to the museum’s floral displays from its original 1935 opening. At that time, Henry Clay Frick’s daughter, Helen, chose each room’s fresh floral arrangement.
"Lilies of the Valley," 2024–2025, by Vladimir Kanevsky are installed in the Boucher Room. Soft-paste porcelain, parian body, and copper. The Frick Collection, New York City. (Joseph Coscia Jr.)
Xavier F. Salomon, the Frick’s Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator, commends Kanevsky’s tribute to the museum’s 1935 inaugural floral displays. He says that the Contemporary artist’s “porcelain creations allow us to honor this tradition—along with the museum’s important collections of historic porcelain and ceramics. His artistry bridges past and present, echoing the museum’s longstanding dedication to beauty and innovation.” In two of the galleries, Kanevsky has repeated Helen’s selections with his installation of camellias in the Library and lilies of the valley in the Boucher Room, part of the newly opened second-floor family rooms.
"Lilies of the Valley," 2024–2025, by Vladimir Kanevsky are installed in the Boucher Room. Soft-paste porcelain, parian body, and copper. The Frick Collection, New York City. Joseph Coscia Jr.
The other porcelain works honor Helen’s intentions while juxtaposing different plants and flowers with the displayed art, inspiring reflection and conversation among viewers. One poignant tribute is the vibrant and ripe “Pomegranate Plant” in the Gold-Grounds Room. After her father’s death, Helen pursued acquiring religious Early Italian Renaissance paintings with gold leaf surfaces to add to the Frick’s holdings. Post-renovation, these works have been assembled together for display in her former bedroom.
"Pomegranate Plant," 2024–2025, by Vladimir Kanevsky is installed in the Gold-Grounds Room. Soft-paste porcelain, glazes, copper, and terracotta. The Frick Collection, New York City. Joseph Coscia Jr.
“Pomegranate Plant” is dramatically situated in front of the room’s mantle. The Frick writes that the sculpture “is a tribute to a plant whose fruits are frequently represented in early Italian paintings and would have been well known by the artists represented in this gallery.”
Above the mantle is a small but sumptuous picture by Gentile da Fabriano (circa 1370–1427), who is considered among the greatest painters of his era. Born in the Marches region, he worked throughout Italy, from Milan and Rome to Venice and Tuscany. Patrons included the pope and the doge. His lyrical, highly detailed paintings are characterized by delicate brushwork, rich colors, and elaborate textile patterns. Additionally, Gentile was highly skilled in the application and tooling of gold leaf backgrounds.
The Frick’s “Virgin and Child, With Saints Lawrence and Julian” dates from 1423 to 1425 and may have been made for a private patron’s family chapel. At its center is the Madonna with the Christ Child, rendered in elegant, flowing lines. Gentile’s advanced interest in naturalism is visible in the realistic, portrait-like heads of Saint Lawrence at left and Saint Julian the Hospitaler at right.
Fragonard Room
The Fragonard Room on the museum's first floor displays 14 panels by the French artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Joseph Coscia Jr.
In contrast to the Gold-Grounds Room, the first floor Fragonard Room was assembled during Henry Clay Frick’s lifetime and has been a visitor favorite at the museum since its opening. Initially, Mr. and Mrs. Frick used the space as their Drawing Room. A year after their mansion was finished in 1914, they acquired a set of lovely panels by the French artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806), which required the reconfiguration of the room. These panels are considered among the most romantic explorations of love in all of art history. Specifically selected furniture and objets d’art were subsequently added to enhance Fragonard’s artworks.
The Rococo artist Fragonard was born in Grasse, located in southern France. He trained in Paris under the distinguished painters Jean-Siméon Chardin and François Boucher and became one of the most important French artists of the second half of the 18th century. Fragonard produced a large body of work that included easel paintings and large-scale decorative panels often of genre scenes.
"The Progress of Love: Love Letters," 1771–1772, by Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Oil on canvas; 124 7/8 inches by 85 3/8 inches. The Frick Collection, New York City. Joseph Coscia Jr.
The Frick’s Fragonard Room collection features 14 pictures, with the series referred to as “The Progress of Love.” The four principal scenes—“The Pursuit,” “The Meeting,” “The Lover Crowned,” and “Love Letters”—date to a 1771 to 1772 commission. The patroness was the infamous Madame du Barry, King Louis XV of France’s last mistress, and the intended setting for the works was the music pavilion of her château west of Paris. However, perhaps due to society’s changing artistic tastes, she declined the finished works. Instead, they were kept, probably rolled up, by Fragonard in Paris for 20 years.
Upon his move to a cousin’s villa in Grasse, the canvases were finally installed. Fragonard created an additional 10 pictures to fill the house’s main salon. Over 100 years later, the series passed through the hands of English dealers before selling to American financier J.P. Morgan. After his death, the powerful art dealer Joseph Duveen purchased them for $1.25 million (over $31 million today) and sold them in turn to Henry Clay Frick at cost. Kanevsky has created a lush assemblage of cascading roses for this room, as well as displays of white hyacinths.
"Cascading Roses," 2024–2025, by Vladimir Kanevsky are installed in the Fragonard Room. Parian body, copper, and terracotta. The Frick Collection, New York City. Joseph Coscia Jr.
The sculptures in “Porcelain Garden: Vladimir Kanevsky at The Frick Collection” induce awe and wonder. They help physically define the museum’s spaces, both old and new, and enhance communication with the permanent collection. The flowers are so lifelike that one can almost smell the bouquets, and careful examination reveals imitation insect holes on some of the leaves.
Kanevsky says, “There is everything in flowers—history, drama, structure, beauty, and fragrance.” The same can be said about the Frick Collection and its special exhibition.
"Cherry Blossoms," 2024–2025, by Vladimir Kanevsky are displayed in the Oval Room alongside James McNeill Whistler's 1871–1874 painting "Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs. Frances Leyland." The Frick Collection, New York City. Joseph Coscia Jr.
“Porcelain Garden: Vladimir Kanevsky at The Frick Collection” exhibition runs through Oct. 6, 2025 in New York City. To find out more, visit frick.org.
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