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.
Attributed to Salvator Rosa
Oil on linen
n.d.
Unknown, American
Oil on canvas
19th century
Fritz Hickmann
Oil on canvas mounted to board
1855
Eugène-Joseph Verboeckhoven
Oil on panel
1858
Constant Troyon
Oil on linen
1860-65
Henry Raschen
Oil on canvas
n.d.
Thomas Spinks
Oil on canvas
1888
Bernhard Schneider-Blumberg
Oil on canvas
1914
Unknown
Poster reproduction
ca.1917-1929, printed 1967
Unknown
Poster reproduction
ca.1917-1929, printed 1967
El Lissitzky
Poster reproduction
1918, printed 1967