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Edmund de Waal
an annunciation, 2019
Porcelain, steel, gold, alabaster, aluminum, and plexiglass
© Edmund de Waal. Courtesy the artist and The Frick Collection. Photo: Christopher Burke
514—Anteroom
De Waal talking about this work
The music that inspired the artist
This is what I've made for the Anteroom, for the French table with that incredible Van Eyck. So this is an annunciation. It's a work which I've made about encounter, about meeting and having that extraordinary moment of revelation, which is the annunciation.
What I've done is to gild the inside of these three folded pieces of steel; white on the outside and then gilded on the inside, to produce this extraordinary aura, this sort of halo, this wash of golden light that folds over these very white vessels, and illuminates the whole sculpture. It's extraordinary. As the light changes, this aura comes and goes, but it's always present. It's all placed on marble, a very, very thin piece of Carrara marble, which floats on top, so the whole sculpture floats in front of the Van Eyck.
It is annunciation.
on living in an old country I–II, 2019
515—Dining Room
In this extraordinary fantasy of the English country house—the Dining Room here at the Frick—we're surrounded by images of English aristocracy. We imagine that if we open the windows here we'd be looking across some deer park deep into the English countryside. And it is a fantasy. It's about trying to make a space which talks about lineage, which talks about the countryside, and of course it's dominated by this incredible pair of Gainsborough portraits. And what I've done is to make two installations which I've called "on living in an old country". This is the only space within the whole of this exhibition where I'm not using vessels. If you look carefully into them, you'll see that they're substantial white vitrines that float on these deep plinths of plexiglass, which allow you to look down onto the marble tops of the two pier tables.
And then, on top of the plexiglass is floating a piece of very, very thin marble, and on top of that is steel. I've made steel receptacles, some of which are empty and some which hold broken fragments of porcelain interspersed with gold. So in this very poised room when you look down into these steel containers you will see that I've written lots and lots of scraps of poetry, bits and pieces, marginalia, fragments, and then broken them all up, so these boxes hold fragments of language.
And I've called these two installations "on living in an old country". It's my response to Englishness. It's my response to this beautiful room, but it's also, as I think I say somewhere, when I think about being English, I want to break things. So here I've broken things and keep the fragments together. It's about being troubled by Englishness.
steel light I-V, 2019
Porcelain, steel, and gold
516—West Vestibule
We're in the West Vestibule, that incredible Boulle table, that dense, dark, thinking though with different materials, and Boucher around you, and this extraordinary raking west light coming in.
And so here are five solid, beautiful, black steel grounds. Heavy things, on which to make sculpture. Black porcelain on each, and then leaning, these very, very, very thin, almost shard-like pieces of steel, milled to a sixteenth of an inch thick. Some gilded, some with this beautiful gray-blue patina to them.
And it's balance. It's balance, equilibrium, it's trying to find how light comes in, how it moves around, how shadows work.
So it's a sculpture for light; for changing light for that particular place.
on an archaic torso of Apollo, 2019
517—Fragonard Room
So, this is it. I'm finally in the Fragonard Room, which of course is one of the most theatrical places in America. We're in France, and yet we're on 5th Avenue. With Central Park over there, it's an extraordinary mixture of places and histories simultaneously.
And in fact, that's kind of the point of the place: it's about being in one place, and being simultaneously somewhere else. It's about desire.
I mean, we're in France, what can I say? It's completely saturated with desire. Fragonard. Porcelain. Gold, lots of gold. Beholding one thing, revealing, concealing. And so finally here is my piece on this incredible Riesener cabinet, with this head of Apollo, the bay leaves, the sun, love. And my installation has finally settled here, and I'm thrilled beyond measure. I'm absolutely thrilled.
The gilding, the floating, the way the installation actually disappears into the room, which is what it should do, it should be here, and yet completely fugitive.
sub silentio, 2019
Porcelain, steel, and plexiglass
518—Living Hall
So this is my installation for the Living Hall. It's an extraordinary heart to the house. I mean, you can feel Frick's identification with these incredible portraits of people around him. You feel the power. There's St. Jerome translating the Bible, you've got Cromwell and [Sir Thomas] More, you've got St. Francis. You've got these extraordinary people, often with pieces of paper, and pens, and books in their hands.
And that great Boulle desk, black, heavy desk in the middle of the hall, where you would imagine there might be Renaissance bronzes, and these [installations] take that place of Renaissance bronzes. Those objects of great symbolic, black, powerful patinated power. Five steel grounds—again, you can feel the weight of them. The most beautiful, I have to say, black porcelain vessels—these are the ones I've been putting aside—ones I'm hugely happy with, as the glazes have worked stunningly on these, if I'm allowed to say. And then leaning these thin pieces of steel, so again a feeling almost of industrial steel, trying to find a fulcrum, a place of balance and power. And all held within vitrines because this is about holding something back, which is of course what power is really about.
an alchemy, 2019
Porcelain, steel, gold, and plexiglass
519—Library
Here we are in the fabulous library of the Frick. If you look in the center of this beautiful room, you'll see a library table underneath this magnificent clock and if you look very carefully, I've hidden an installation. It's called an alchemy. What I've done is to take away a dozen volumes of history of wealth that used to occupy this space and put in three vitrines holding black vessels, broken black shards and gold and pieces of steel. So, at the heart of this installation is the image of Frick, himself, transforming through alchemy, steel into money, steel into wealth. And of course, wealth into art. It's the great untold story in the heart of this building. So, I've taken away the books about wealth. I made an installation which tells that journey of steel into art.
that pause of space, 2019
Porcelain, gold, alabaster, aluminum, and plexiglass
520—North Hall
This is the vitrine that I've made for the North Hall. You've got that incredible picture by Ingres of the Comtesse d'Haussonville above you. You've got the Gouthière table, one of the most extraordinary pieces of gilding in the world, with a blue Turquin marble top to it. It's absolutely exquisite. So what do you make for that particular space with that particular light? This is it. It's a steel vitrine, gilded—it floats above Gouthière's table. There's a piece of alabaster floating within it. I've gilded underneath the alabaster, so there's a kind of golden stain, an aura that goes down towards the table top. And then, eight porcelain vessels, unglazed, apart from these two single, beautiful blue—they are beautiful, really beautiful—celadon ones. Unglazed porcelain fired incredibly high in the kiln. And then leaning amongst them, these shards of porcelain, very very thin, gilded, so that there are golden reflections, a matrix of golden reflections coming and going within the piece.
It's really simple. It's a garniture. A garniture is a formal arrangement of porcelain you'd find in any 18th century house. And I've deranged it and rearranged it to make this austere and I hope beautiful new sculpture for that particular place.
noontime and dawntime, 2019
from darkness to darkness, 2019
521—West Gallery
I listen to music all the time. Standing in front of that extraordinary picture by Goya of The Forge, with that the feeling of the man about to strike that hammer down onto the red-hot metal, gave me the aural focus for this exhibition, which is of a pulse. A rhythm. And a very strong, metallic, powerful movement of repetition, hence Steve Reich, hence Philip Glass, and also really Bach's French Suites and the Goldberg Variations. That kind of powerful pull through repetition and return. Here, in these pieces, there'll be these stacked pieces of steel, and this idea of a particular quality of sound, is absolutely the heart of the show.
The Temptation of Christ on the Mountain, I, 2019
522—Enamels Room
This is one of my favorite paintings in the Frick. It's Duccio, The Temptation of Christ on the Mountain. And there's Christ standing on this extraordinary craggy landscape with these great cities of the world below him, around him. He's casting the devil aside. This is my kind of reliquary really; it's steel and leaning gold, leaning pieces of golden porcelain. And then these porcelain vessels, which are sort of people, abstracted, and they exist in the space.
It's just trying to make the sacred work really. It's a kind of meditation on what an icon is. An icon is an interesting thing. It's an image which bears repeated viewing, so I'm trying to make my own version of an icon. And if you do see this, as with many of these installations at the Frick, I'm dealing with aura. Aura is obviously reflected light. Here, I've hidden leaning golden porcelain, sort of in the crook of this piece of steel. So there's a kind of golden glow, which washes across the whole piece. These are some of my favorite gold ground paintings in the world. So it's dealing with gold, dealing with the sacred. It is a powerful thing to try and do.
Elective Affinities: Edmund de Waal at The Frick Collection
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Music that Inspired De Waal
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