Last summer, when Annabelle Selldorf was in the final stretch of her transformative expansion of the Frick Collection, I photographed her on the remote island in Maine where she has a small house. Annabelle is known for reimagining monumental architecture, most recently the Frick, opening in April, and the Sainsbury Wing of London’s National Gallery, which opens in May. As we walked along the rocky shore, she was preoccupied with the sky, with the color of the clouds. She was thinking about how to paint the ceiling of the Frick’s new auditorium.
Annabelle’s mission is to make art accessible to the widest range of visitors possible. The spaces she creates are meant to accommodate large numbers of people, but they are not overpowering. They are sensitively and deftly restrained. The entrance to the Frick is no longer hard to find. Everyone can walk in through the same front door. Visitors can explore the museum at their own pace. “I get lost and feel the better for it,” she says. And the DNA of the beautiful rooms is intact. Her work embodies the values she holds dear. Art and life are not separate.
Leibovitz is a photographer