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 five 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.
Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe
Oil on canvas
2020
Fritz Hickmann
Oil on canvas mounted to board
1855
Srijon Chowdhury
Oil on linen
2022
Joseph Park
Oil on panel
2007
Gisela McDaniel
Oil on panel, found objects, sound
2021
Juventino Aranda
Oil on wool Pendleton blanket
2018
Molly Jae Vaughan
Oil pencil on paper
2022
Molly Zuckerman-Hartung
Oil, collage, plastic garbage bag, camouflage pants
2008-2011
Tracy and the Plastics
Performance and video, sound, color
2006/2014
Anthony White
PLA (plastic) on panel
2019
Liz Magor
Polymerized gypsum, cans of beer
2001
Clarissa Tossin
Porcelain
2021