Yvonne Twining Humber

Modern Painter
Frye Art Museum
Seattle, Washington
September 8, 2007 - January 6, 2008

Giving back. That is often associated with artists who in some way pave the way for others in their field. The Irving and Yvonne Twining Humber Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement is an unrestricted $10,000 award given annually to a Washington State female visual artist, age 60 or older, who has dedicated 25 or more years of her life to creating art.

Title: Demolition, 1948
Artist: Yvonne Twining Humber (American 1907-2004)
Medium: Oil on Masonite
Dimensions: 25 x 32 in.
Private Collection
Image Courtesy: Frye Art Museum

A native of New York City, Yvonne Twining Humber spent most of her formative years in England until the death of her father when she was 10 years old. Humber studied at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League in New York City and won two consecutive Tiffany Foundation Fellowships.

Humber worked as an easel painter for Boston’s Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project from 1935 to 1943. It is her canvases of American urban and rural landscapes that defined her oeuvre.

Title: River Picnic, 1940
Artist: Yvonne Twining Humber (American 1907-2004)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 21 x 28 in.
Private Collection
Image Courtesy: Frye Art Museum

Following her marriage to Irving Humber, a businessman, in 1943, she moved with him to Seattle and continued to paint while becoming an active participant in her new home's artistic community. Her style fell out of favor, not an unusual concern for an artist as tastes change.

“She was always drawing,” gallery owner David Martin once said of Humber’s later years. “Often when she went out, she took her sketchpad. Her academic training never failed her. She could draw anything, and she could draw in the dark if she had to.” David Martin is co-owner of Martin-Zambito Fine Art.

Title: The Canal, 1940
Artist: Yvonne Twining Humber (American 1907-2004)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 19 x 25 in.
Private Collection
Image Courtesy: Frye Art Museum

It wasn't only helping educate artists that was important to Humber. She helped educate the public about art. She volunteered at the Seattle Art Museum as a docent for decades. The museum owns two of her paintings.

Title: Back Street, 1940
Artist: Yvonne Twining Humber (American 1907-2004)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 22 x 28 in.
Private Collection
Image Courtesy: Frye Art Museum

Yvonne Twining Humber: Modern Painter is curated by Robin Held, chief curator and director of exhibitions and collections at the Frye Art Museum.

Yvonne Twining Humber
Modern Painter
Frye Art Museum:
September 8, 2007 - January 6, 2008