Title: The Frick Collection, New York
First published: 1987
Description: This volume was researched and compiled by then-graduate student Elliott S. Hurwitt and edited by Terrence Ford. It was on sale in the gift shop of the Frick Collection until it sold out, and has not been reprinted.  The volume is one of a series of publications of the Research Center for Musical Iconography (international project, U.S. headquarters at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York). Other volumes cover the Pierpont Morgan Library (manuscripts only) and several other museums outside of New York as well.  Research was also completed on the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and both the Palace of the Legion of Honor and the de Young Museum (both San Francisco), the latter two inventoried by Elliott S. Hurwitt.  Each volume of these "Inventories of Music Iconography" is based on a complete survey of the collections of major art museums (including works in storage), with analysis and interpretation of each art work, whether a painting, drawing, sculpture, tapestry, seat covering, or other textile or medium, that depicts subject matter of musical interest.  There need not be any musical instrument or singing visible in the art work.  For example, depictions of dancing are eligible. So, too, are such seemingly less-obvious works as Indian paintings depicting two lovers in a garden at twilight, if that can be defined as a "raga" in the broader sense (as opposed to the more commonly understood (in the West) as only a musical composition and/or improvisation). The U.S. branch of the Research Center for Musical Iconography was founded and for many years headed up by Professor Barry Brook (CUNY), and was funded in part by UNESCO. Beginning in the late 1980s it became increasingly difficult to fully fund the initiative, and a number of fully researched museum projects were never published.  Professor Brook's motto for RCMI, "Do it once, do it right, get it all," remains an inspiration to all who studied with him, as well as an example of his enterprising spirit and wit.
Subjects: Bibliography, Catalogs, Frick Collection, Music in art
Places: New York, san Francisco
People: Musical iconography
Time periods: 1988
LC classification: ML85 H87 1987