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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
Untitled   McCurdy, Robert   Oil on canvas  1999 
Untitled   Glantzman, Judith   Pencil on paper  2002 
Untitled   Layman, Isaac   Photographic construction, inkjet on paper  2011 
Untitled   Layman, Isaac   Photographic construction, inkjet on paper  2011 
Untitled   Calderon, Mark   Book spine repair tape  2012 
Untitled   Yamahira, Ko Kirk   Acrylic and graphite on partially unwoven canvas with wood  2019 
Untitled (Badlands)   Aranda, Juventino   Oil on wool Pendleton blanket  2018 
Untitled (Nail Harp)   Degenerate Art Ensemble   Steel, wood, guitar strings, nails  2005 
Untitled (XIV)   Soldi, Rafael   Archival pigment print  2013 
Untitled [Details of serpent 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 
Untitled [Frame from Die Sünde (Sin) by Franz von Stuck]   Liu Ding   Oil on canvas  2012 
Untitled #041220   Reskala, Georgina   Gelatin silver print  2017 
Venus Jar 4: My Mothers   O’Leary, Hanako   Clay  2020 
Via del Pantheon   Bailey, William H.   Pencil on paper  1997 
Voices of the Ancestors: People of the First Man   Pattison, Harry   Oil on canvas  1997 
Waves Floater   Britto, Romero   Acrylic paint and oil pen on canvas  2017 
We are the Gentle Angry Women and We Are Singing for Our Lives   Lesperance, Ellen   Gouache and graphite on tea-stained paper  2015 
Wild Rose Lard   Hulburt, Lucille   Watercolor on paper  1990 
Wind Jangle   Berk, Leo Saul   Aluminum, fishing line, weights  2015 
Window Installation   Simpson, Buster   Archival inkjet print in artist-made frame  1974/2013 
Windy Day   Sculthorpe, Peter   Watercolor on paper  1990 
Withered Lotus Cast in Iron   Pan Gongkai   Ink on paper  2014 
World of Wonders   Fisher, Stephen   Graphite on paper  1991 


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