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.
Srijon Chowdhury
Oil on linen
2022
Cauleen Smith
Archival pigment print
2015
Khari Johnson-Ricks
Watercolor on paper with acetate
2021
Kelly Akashi
Chromogenic crystallograph in aluminum artist's frame
2021
Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, Hesam Rahmanian
Digital video (color, silent); 6:21 min.
2016
Tracy and the Plastics
Performance and video, sound, color
2006/2014
Jeffry Mitchell
Earthenware with luster glaze
2005
Gretchen Frances Bennett
Color pencil on paper
2023
Harry Gould Harvey IV
Black walnut from the Delano Sawmill, white oak from Prudence Island, MDF, colored pencil, charcoal, gouache, and pigments of goldenrod, Aronia Viking chokecherry, and rose petals
2022