Linda Farris, had a passion for art
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Linda Farris, who had a passion for art, dies
By Sheila Farr
Seattle Times art critic
Gallery owner Linda Farris battled cancer for two years.
Cinched into a merry-widow corset, with a feather boa draped from her
shoulders, Linda Farris used to hold court from the front of her
Pioneer Square gallery on opening nights, surrounded by artists,
patrons and happy passers-by. Those who stopped in to join the party
- and who could resist? - often ended up Linda Farris converts,
hooked on the art she was selling and wowed by the woman who set
herself up as high priestess of the local scene.
Ms. Farris, 61, died Friday, July 22, after a two-year battle with
cancer. She stayed active, attending art openings and visiting with
friends until nearly the end.
"She was such a force in the art world," said artist Ginny Ruffner, who
showed at Linda Farris Gallery for 10 years. "If you were at all
involved in the art world, you were involved with Linda."
As Seattle's most flamboyant gallery owner, Ms. Farris was an avid
promoter and activist for the arts, whether writing to Seattle Times
publisher Frank Blethen to chide him about the paper not giving enough
space for art reviews or leading a movement to keep Henry Moore's
popular outdoor sculpture "Vertebrae" from leaving Seattle.
Among her accomplishments, Ms. Farris rallied other Pioneer Square art
dealers to coordinate their openings for First Thursday gallery walks,
donated her time to raise money for AIDS research and supported an
annual "Day without Art" to increase awareness of the epidemic.
After closing her gallery in 1995, Ms. Farris took time off to travel
with her husband, Seattle developer John Kucher. She later started the
Contemporary Art Project with a group of financial backers. Ms. Farris
used the money to travel and purchase artworks which were eventually
donated to the Seattle Art Museum.
A native of San Francisco, Ms. Farris was born in 1944 and studied
communications at the University of California, Berkeley. She worked
for a while in advertising before moving to Seattle in 1967.
In 1970, she opened a gallery in Bellevue and a year later moved her
business to Pioneer Square, where she quickly took on a group of young
Master of Fine Arts grads from the University of Washington. Sherry
Markovitz, Jeffrey Bishop, Norie Sato, Dennis Evans and a handful of
others became the core of Ms. Farris' stable. She later spiced up the
roster with big names, arranging shows that included works by Robert
Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Beverly Pepper, Louise Nevelson, and William
T. Wiley, among others.
With her advertising background and a penchant for public relations,
Ms. Farris knew how to grab attention. People talked about the wild
get-ups she wore as much as they talked about the artworks she
exhibited. In 1995, at a gala closing party for the gallery, Ms. Farris
showed up in a black lace bustier, Spandex leggings and a wild,
feather-and-tulle cape and headdress created by artist Carl Smool.
"If not always dressed to kill, Linda was always at least dressed to
maim," quipped former Seattle Art Museum curator Patterson Sims.
And she was equally happy to take it all off - for art's sake, of
course. Ms. Farris posed unglamorously nude for a portrait by Chuck
Close.
Ms. Farris liked to keep journalists supplied with a steady flow of
gossipy tidbits to spike their columns. For her, even throwing a garage
sale was a gala event. The announcement for her 1994 "Estate Sale" -
something that usually occurs after a person dies - caught the eye of
Jean Godden, then a Times columnist, who called and wisecracked with
Ms. Farris about being dead, typing all the while. Ms. Farris explained
that the stuff she was selling was too good to call it a garage sale,
thus the title.
"You won't find any used blenders here," she remarked.
Services for Ms. Farris will be private. The family suggests donations
to the Seattle Art Museum, P.O. Box 22000, Seattle, WA 98122-9700, to
help fund the purchase of contemporary art.