Intimate Side Of Hannah Frank Revealed



Intimate Side Of Hannah Frank Revealed
In Major Retrospective In Glasgow


Last Sculpture Works

A Rare Opportunity to see the more personal, intimate side of artist, Hannah Frank, comes to Glasgow this month in a major retrospective of the artist’s work. The exhibition takes place at the Royal Glasgow Institute’s Kelly Gallery, Douglas Street, from
28 Jan – 11 Feb 2006 and will be the first major retrospective of the work of Glasgow Jewish artist, Hannah Frank, in her ‘native heath’ for 17 years.

Intimate family portraits, including self-portraits and drawings of Hannah’s younger brother, Arthur Frank, executed between 1925 and 1932, are among the exhibits. These family sketches lay untouched in an old suitcase for 70 years and provide an fascinating contrast to her well-known Beardsleyesque black and white drawings which intriguingly combine other-worldliness, poetic inspiration and austerity.

Extracts from Hannah Frank’s diaries will also be on show. Hannah Frank wrote daily between 1925 and 1935. A total of 11 diaries survive, complete with her playful illustrations of her daily life. Like Charles Rennie Mackintosh before her, Hannah Frank was a regular evening student at Glasgow School of Art. Between 1927-32 she attended Glasgow University, where she regularly provided illustrations for the University magazine, using the pen name Al Aaraaf. She was involved with several Glasgow Jewish groups for which she also provided illustrations. All these years are covered in the diaries. Hannah Frank rarely threw anything away and many of these original drawings and illustrations will be on show for the first time in Scotland.

In the 1950s, Hannah took up sculpture, studying with Benno Schotz, head of sculpture at the Glasgow School of Art, who was later appointed the Queen's Sculptor in Ordinary. Hannah’s drawings and sculpture were exhibited in the Royal Glasgow Institute, the Royal Academy, and the Royal Scottish Academy, throughout her 75 year artistic career. Many of Hannah Frank’s sculptures and works in plaster will be on show at the Kelly Gallery alongside her drawings and sketches, including a stunningly executed bronze of her father Charles Frank, done in 1956 and exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1962.

Cards, books and signed reproductions of many of Hannah Frank’s drawings will be on sale at the exhibition. A small number of sculptures will also be on sale with the opportunity to purchase others as limited edition recasts.

At 97, Glasgow-born Hannah is the last living link to the Scottish Art Nouveau period. Her work is currently enjoying a dramatic resurgence in interest. Perhaps this forms part of the continuing interest in the ‘older artist’, with third age artists such as Ian Hamilton-Finlay, Cartier-Bresson, George Wylie, Richard Demarco and Hilda Goldwag all with exhibitions in Scotland in recent months.

All those interested in the development of Glasgow as a city will be fascinated by the accompanying exhibition panels by the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre on Jewish immigration to Glasgow and the Frank family’s story. Together with several thousand other immigrants from Russia, Hannah’s father, Charles Frank, came to the city in 1905. He opened Frank’s Camera Store in Saltmarket in 1908, the year Hannah was born.

Said Brian Stewart, curator at Falmouth Art Gallery: “…[Hannah Frank] produced Last Sculpture works of breathtaking quality… a unique style enhanced by a brilliant sense of design.” Clare English, BBC radio presenter, who interviewed Hannah for an 'arts show' programme last year, remarked: “An amazing artist who still has dynamism in her soul. ”

A series of Hannah Frank related events takes place throughout the exhibition including sketching workshops for adults and children, a lecture by Peter Trowles, Mackintosh curator at the Glasgow School of Art on ‘Women at the Glasgow School of Art: The early years; and a lecture by Lesley Richmond of Glasgow University Archives on ‘Hannah Frank – A Glasgow University Woman of her Time?’

Contact: Fiona Frank
Tel: 07778 737 681 | email: fionafrank@hannahfrank.org.uk

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