The Frye Art Museum is a modern and contemporary art museum in the First Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1952 to house the collection of Charles and Emma Frye and has since grown to include rotating temporary exhibitions of emerging and contemporary artists.
History
The museum emphasizes painting and sculpture from the nineteenth century to the present. Its holdings originated from the private collection of Charles H. Frye (1858–1940) and Emma Lamp Frye (d. 1934). The Fryes' were first-generation Americans of German descent who collected primarily German and Austrian After Charles and Emma Frye had both died and following the sale of their home in 1941, many of their collected paintings, overseen by Walser Greathouse, were moved to the meat plant on Airport Way in SoDo, Seattle.
The Fryes' historic collection consisted of representational art works, with a tendency toward "the dark, the dramatic, and the psychological" rather than "the genteel". The museum's permanent collection reflects Charles Frye's relatively conservative artistic tastes, and initially, the museum continued to be dedicated to representational art, both in its acquisitions and its exhibits. The museum added a 142-seat auditorium and an education studio as part of the renovation. "Agnieszka Polska: Love Bite," and "Unsettling Femininity: Selections from the Frye Art Museum Collection." The museum often redeploys its permanent collection, experimenting with exhibiting it in different arrangements. In 2018, the museum had 109,249 total attendees and a membership base of 2,383.
Contemporary artists and groups exhibited at The Frye have included the performance group Degenerate Art Ensemble, American painter Christina Quarles, and African-American filmmaker and multimedia artist Cauleen Smith.
In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the museum temporarily closed for in-person visits and provided online art viewing and educational opportunities through the Frye From Home program. On August 28, 2020, the museum announced its expectation to reopen for in-person visits in October 2020.
Collection
The Frye Art Museum's collection highlights many kinds of paintings, prints, works on paper, and sculptures. It specializes in 19th and 20th century American and German art.