The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum

Larry Aldrich (1906-2001) founded The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in November of 1964 in the “Old Hundred” building on historic Main Street in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

Mr. Aldrich, pictured at right in his office and with a work by Zao Wou-Ki in the 1950s, was a successful fashion designer who became an avid art collector. In the 1940s, his early collection centered on Impressionist and Expressionist masters, including works by Renoir, Manet, Monet, Gauguin, Klee, and Utrillo. His interests later shifted towards contemporary art and he sold his early collection to invest in contemporary art. He also made generous donations to the Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum of American Art, through the Aldrich Purchase Fund, which allowed those museums to acquire contemporary art for their permanent collections including works by Frank Stella, Brice Marden, Tom Wesselmann, and Agnes Martin.

In 1964, Mr. Aldrich decided to open his own museum dedicated to contemporary art in Ridgefield, Connecticut where he maintained a residence. He purchased the eighteenth-century “Old Hundred” building and transformed it into a museum. With this the property’s backyard became a sculpture garden. The scale of the building was important to Mr. Aldrich as he wanted visitors to experience contemporary art within an intimate domestic environment.

He founded the SoHo Center for Visual Arts in New York City, a nonprofit exhibition space for artists who did not yet have gallery representation, which ran until 1990. Mr. Aldrich remained an active member of the Museum’s Board of Trustees until his passing in 2001.

Read a transcript of Mr. Aldrich’s Oral History Interview with the Smithsonian Archives of American Art here.

The Aldrich is internationally recognized for its artist-centric programs and visionary exhibitions. We present first solo museum exhibitions by emerging artists, significant exhibitions of established artists, and thematic group exhibitions.

Throughout the Museum’s history, we have been among the first to exhibit now-acclaimed artists in group shows such as Frank Stella (1965), Robert Smithson (1966), Eva Hesse (1969), Jack Whitten (1972), Jean-Michel Basquiat (1983), Cindy Sherman (1986), Robert Gober (1988), Kerry James Marshall (1996), and Jeffrey Gibson (2006), among many others.

In addition, the Museum has consistently presented the first solo museum exhibitions of artists who have gone on to have renowned careers, including Olafur Eliasson, Huma Bhabha, KAWS, Michelle Lopez, B. Wurtz, Ruth Root, Hayal Pozanti, David Scanavino, David Brooks, and Eva LeWitt. We have also presented the first career surveys of Harmony Hammond, Jackie Winsor, Suzanne McClelland, and Mark Dion, to name a few, and newly commissioned projects by Virginia Overton, Michael Joo, Jessica Stockholder, and Xaviera Simmons. Pictured at right: installation views from Cool Art (1968) in the “Old Hundred” building and Jack Whitten: Evolver (2014).

See our full exhibition history