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Contemporary Art

Loosely defined as the art of today or the art of our lifetime, the term “contemporary art” is usually used more specifically to describe artworks created since the 1980s or 1990s. For collection purposes, the Frye Art Museum currently delineates the scope as 1990 to the present. In the more general sense, the Frye has collected and exhibited contemporary—or contemporaneous—art since its opening in 1952. This commitment to the art and culture of the present was catalyzed by Museum founders Charles and Emma Frye, who amassed a collection of paintings made within their own lifetimes and often purchased works directly from living artists. Over the last seven decades, directors of the Museum have each brought their own interests and interpretations to bear on the Frye’s engagement with contemporary art and thereby shaped a distinctive collection. Prior to the tenure of Elsa “Midge” Bowman (Director, 2004–09), and often counter to dominant trends in art of the time, the Frye’s leadership focused exclusively on exhibiting and collecting representational art, citing Charles and Emma Frye’s preferences for figurative and landscape painting. Under Bowman’s direction, the exhibitions program at the Frye expanded into areas like video art and performance that questioned and upended the definition of representational art. In 2008, the Museum’s mission was revised to embrace art in its myriad forms. The Frye’s contemporary art collection has grown significantly since that time, reflecting the diversity of the institution’s engagement with local, national, and international artists working today.

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Title Artist Medium Date
Landscape with Chad   Fenton, Anne   Color photograph  2012 
Table with popular merchandise selected by the artist from the Frye Store, from the series Liu Ding's Store   Liu Ding   Wood, aluminum, paint, Frye Store merchandise  2012 
Table with children's merchandise selected by the artist from the Frye Store, from the series Liu Ding's Store   Liu Ding   Wood, aluminum, paint, Frye Store merchandise  2012 
Table with Munich Secession–themed merchandise selected by the artist from the Frye Store, from the series Liu Ding's Store   Liu Ding   Wood, aluminum, paint, Frye Store merchandise  2012 
Landscape #7   Browning, Matt   Tree sap on handmade wood panel  2012 
Untitled   Calderon, Mark   Book spine repair tape  2012 
Not Waving, but Drowning   Mitchell, Jeffry   Glazed earthenware on artist-made wood pedestal  2012 
Ode to Octavia Part 12: (Sparkles)...Recollections of the Wraith   The Black Constellation   Digital video (color, sound); 4:49 min.  2012 
Ode to Octavia: Cranium Adornment #5   The Black Constellation   Composited bone, enamel, found goggles  2012 
Ode to Octavia: Neo-Ancient Taliswoman   The Black Constellation   Incantation, repurposed bronze, brass, silver, stainless steel, rosewood, beechnut, abalone shell, ibex and dik-dik horn, precious and semiprecious stones, 1996 GMC truck key  2012 
Untitled [Details of serpent from Die Sünde (Sin) by Franz von Stuck]   Liu Ding   Oil on canvas  2012 
Untitled [Frame from Die Sünde (Sin) by Franz von Stuck]   Liu Ding   Oil on canvas  2012 
Untitled [Details of serpent from Die Sünde (Sin) by Franz von Stuck]   Liu Ding   Oil on canvas  2012 
Clinkers   Berk, Leo Saul   Duratrans on sculptural lightbox  2012 


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