The Frye Art Museum continues to strategically build its collection through purchases and gifts, both deepening existing areas of strength and diversifying holdings to reflect the Museum’s expansive curatorial program and Seattle’s globalized present.
Acquisitions of the last ten years demonstrate the Museum’s commitment to growing and contextualizing its distinctive historical collections of late nineteenth- and twentieth-century European and American art while broadening its holdings of contemporary works to embrace previously underrepresented identities, perspectives, and forms of expression. To some extent, acquisitions mirror the Museum’s exhibition history, creating a material record of the institution’s engagement with local, national, and international artists and commemorating the special audience connection formed through temporary presentations. Contemporary artworks chosen for the collection often respond to or complicate the narratives around mediums and genres traditionally associated with the Frye, like painting, landscape, and portraiture.
Kahlil Joseph
16mm film transferred to two-channel digital video (color, sound); 4:1 min.
2016
Jim Woodring
3-D digital video (color, silent); 5:15 min.
2015
Ko Kirk Yamahira
Acrylic and graphite on partially unwoven canvas with wood
2019
Jim Woodring
Acrylic ink on paper
2016
Katherine Bradford
Acrylic on canvas
2022
Eden Seifu
Acrylic on canvas
2022
Romero Britto
Acrylic paint and oil pen on canvas
2017
Bony Ramirez
Acrylic, soft oil pastel, color pencil, wallpaper, metal chain, dried coconuts
2021
Cris Bruch
Aluminum composite
2015
Leo Berk
Aluminum, fishing line, weights
2015
Buster Simpson
Archival inkjet print in artist-made frame
1974/2013