Seattle Art Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Frye Art Museum’

The Frye Art Museum, the only free art museum in Seattle,  presents a major United States museum exhibition of Nicolai Fechin (1881–1955), an émigré Russian-American painter renowned for his distinctive and innovative painterly style. Comprising fifty-five paintings and drawings, the exhibition draws from the holdings of the Frye Art Museum, museums in the United States, and private lenders in both Russia and the United States. Curated by Frye Director Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker, Nicolai Fechin concentrates on the early years of the artist’s career in Russia, a period in which the Frye Art Museum has particular strength, and concludes with paintings from Fechin’s time in Taos and California. The exhibition provides a rare opportunity to recognize the accomplishments of this important painter. It is the first overview of Fechin’s work at the Frye since 1976. The exhibition  runs through May 19. Shown: Nicolai Fechin. Lady in Pink (Portrait of Natalia Podbelskaya), 1912. Oil on canvas. 45 ½ x 35 in. Frye Art Museum, 1990.005.

Showing through May 5, and for his first exhibition at the Frye Art Museum in his new capacity as Deputy Director, Collections and Exhibitions, Scott Lawrimore has commissioned thirty-six Seattle artists to create new work in response to musical compositions based on Chamber Music, the first published work by James Joyce.

I just now received a press release from the Frye Art Museum titled, “Free Things To Do This Weekend.” It says, ”Come to the Frye Art Museum, reopening this weekend after extensive refurbishment. Join the 60th Anniversary celebration with an Ice Cream Social 3-4 pm Saturday, Gallery Talks at 2 on Saturday and Sunday, and Guided Tours both days at 11:30. It’s all FREE, including admission and parking! Always was free, still is.” They really want you to come, trust me.

Fifteen years after the 1997 architectural renovation of the Museum by Rick Sundberg and Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects, the Frye Art Museum  has been transformed on the occasion of its 60th anniversary. A, stark white on white palette throughout the building accentuates the cadences of the original architecture and galleries, showcases artworks to their best advantage, and intensifies vistas of the museum’s courtyard and reflecting pool.

The opening exhibitions include:

“The Perfection of Good-Nature”: The Frye Founding Collection” examines for the first time the impact of the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago on the collection of Charles and Emma Frye, founders of the Frye Art Museum, and reveals Charles Frye’s vision of a “Seattle Art Museum” in 1915. Shown: Albert Neuhuys. Dutch Woman and Child, n.d. Oil on canvas. 54 x 40 3Ž4 in. Frye Art Museum, Charles and Emma Frye Collection, 1952.126. Photo: Spike Mafford.

“Liu Ding’s Store: Take Home and Make Real the Priceless in Your Heart,” the first solo exhibition in the United States of work by Liu Ding, also includes an intervention by the artist in the Museum Store.

“Ties That Bind: American Artists in Europe” showcases paintings from the Frye collection by American artists who lived in Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Seattle gallerist Scott Lawrimore has just been appointed Deputy Director Collections and Exhibitions effective October 15. Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker, Director of the Frye Museum, said in a press release, ““Scott Lawrimore brings to the Frye Art Museum an unflinching eye for exceptional talent, a penchant for the unexpected, and the strong sense of adventure that made him an important figure in the Seattle cultural community,” said Birnie Danzker. “We are tremendously pleased to have Scott join our leadership team. He shares the Frye Art Museum’s commitment to new concepts of the role of the museum in the twenty-first century and will bring his passion and energy to our unwavering dedication to artists of our region and to the Founding Collection."

As a former museum docent I admit to being prejudiced, so I do want to share with you just one instance of how our museums contribute mightily to the communities they inhabit. For example, I just received a press release from the Frye Art Museum announcing their art history classes and summer studio classes. Art historian Kolya Rice is teaching a course involving a look at American art from the nineteenth century to  the present. Another art historian, Rebecca Albiani examines the High Renaissance of art and architecture in Italy’s great cities in the early sixteenth century. Follow this bolded link to learn more about times, dates and the incredibly reasonable costs.  If you’re new to Seattle, taking a class like one of these will not only add to your knowledge but  will also be a great opportunity to make a new friend. Come to think of it, we can all probably use a new friend, whether we’ve lived here forever or just arrived.

On view from November 19 through January 22 at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, is “Paradise,” Isaac Layman’s first solo museum exhibition. Curated by the director of the Frye Art Museum, Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker, “Paradise” includes more than twenty new photographic constructions created especially for the exhibition. His photographic constructions are included in the collections of the Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Fla.; the Seattle Art Museum; the Tacoma Art Museum; and numerous private collections including the Margulies and Monsen collections. Layman received the Seattle Art Museum’s prestigious Betty Bowen Award in 2008. Shown: Untitled.

The Frye Art Museum  is hosting the first ever U.S. solo museum exhibition of Gabriel von Max (1840–1915) one of the most discussed and controversial artists of the late-19th century, “Gabriel von Max: Be-tailed Cousins and Phantasms of the Soul.” It features over 120 artworks, including paintings, drawings and photographs, many of which have never been seen together before. The exhibition is organized by the Frye Art Museum in collaboration with the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau, Munich, and is curated by Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker. A 128-page, fully illustrated exhibition catalogue, Gabriel von Max accompanies the exhibition.