Happy 60th Birthday Frye Art Museum!

By Seattle Mag February 8, 2012

fryeartmuseum

Loving the archival images that Frye Art Museum posted on its Facebook page today.

They were taken on February 8, 1952 at the museum’s grand opening celebration.  Sixty years later, the museum is still bringing us great classical and contemporary art at the best ticket price: free.

Someone needs to write captions for these pictures. First prize gets a pair of tickets to the museum on us (wink).

Speaking of the Frye, the museum is opening two exciting exhibits next weekend (February 18): one by a local artist, and one by a sculptor who you need to know about. Get thee to First Hill.

Happy Birthday, Frye!

Update! some background on the Frye from a recent press release:

Avid philanthropic supporters of art and music, Charles and Emma Frye gifted a collection of 232 paintings to the people of Seattle, with the promise that access to the collection would always be free.

While other leading collectors of the day were acquiring paintings by French impressionists popular in the early 20th century, the Fryes supported artists of the Munich Secession whose experiments with the intersection of art, literature, music, dance, design, science, and social practice were described by the New York Times in January 1909 as “impulsive, energetic, and extremely various,” demonstrating how far “individualism may be carried.” The core values of the Secessionists, inherent in the Frye Art Museum’s Founding Collection guide the Museum’s commitment to artistic inquiry and its engagement with both historical and contemporary art.

 

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