Hannah Frank news Feb 2011

[Fiona Frank]

HANNAH FRANK NEWS FEBRUARY 2011
offers on prints, request for poetry editors, and other news...
please let me know if you want to come off this list


Regular newsletter readers will have noted that things have been very quiet on the Hannah Frank art front for a while.  I’m currently working towards the completion of my PhD at Strathclyde University and haven’t been thinking too much about anything else.  But as you’ll see in this newsletter, other things have been happening anyway.  (And the PhD is slightly related to my late aunt and uncle, in that it examines transmission of Jewish identity through five generations of the Hoppenstein family, the family my aunt married into 72 years ago.)  I hope that things will be back to normal from May this year, when I will be moving back to Lancaster and looking for work  (all offers 
considered by the way, including arts marketing and bid-writing...!)


GREGSON EXHIBITION LAUNCHED VIA SKYPE
The exhibition of Hannah Frank prints at the Gregson Art and Community Centre, Lancaster, had an unusual launch in December.  At that time the whole country was pretty much at a standstill due to heavy snow. I
was snowed in, in Glasgow, and couldn’t get down to the exhibition (many thanks to Paula Foster and Andy Hornby who set the exhibition up for me). The wonders of technology meant that I didn’t miss the
opening night.  I was able to launch the exhibition, which was attended by a number of Hannah Frank fans, via Skype!  Andy took his laptop and webcam down to the Gregson, I sat at home with my laptop and webcam, and we had fantastic two-way communication for the whole evening.  This ‘caught in the snow’ story captured the attention of the local and Jewish press and photos of the occasion were featured in the Lancaster Guardian and the Jewish Telegraph.  The exhibition
itself was a great success.  Hannah’s art was first exhibited at the Gregson Centre in 2002.

HALF PRICE PRINTS OFFER STILL OPEN
During the exhibition at Lancaster’s Gregson Centre we were selling signed prints at half price.  We are offering some winter cheer by keeping this offer open until the end of March. Visit http://www.hannahfrank.org.uk and go to 'gallery/shop', choose a signed print (look for the asterisks), and write 'half price signed prints' in the ‘comments’ box to receive a Paypal refund within 24
hours of your order being received. Signed prints are becoming increasingly valuable so get yours now.

MURIEL GRAY BUYS ‘WOMAN WITH BIRDS’
We were delighted that journalist and broadcaster presenter Muriel Gray was the successful bidder on our donated signed Hannah Frank print ‘Woman with Birds’ (1947) at the Glasgow Women’s Library Auction

of Pleasures in September. The auction raised over £8000 on the night. Glasgow Women’s Library receives no core funding for general running costs, relying on the generosity of donors, ‘friends’ and other supporters to continue to offer their diverse programme and range of
course for women from all backgrounds, so it was lovely to be able to contribute to that.  The library holds many of my late aunt’s books, complete with bookplate and signature.

GLASGOW AUTHOR TO PROFILE HANNAH IN NEW BOOK
Glaswegian writer Michael Meighan approached us about his forthcoming book, 'Glaswegians with a Flourish'.  Michael visited the Hannah Frank
exhibition at the Hidden Lane Gallery and will profile Hannah in his new book. He has long been acquainted with Hannah’s work, having bought a signed copy of Moon Ballet when he was a student which he
gave to his parents in the 1970s.   He said “I was aware of Charles Frank in the Saltmarket as I would often look at the expensive telescopes and binoculars in the shop window. But it was in 1973 when
I was in what was then called Arnott Simpson’s in Buchanan Street that I discovered Hannah Frank. I was home from university and hunting for a Christmas present for my parents. There, hanging in a row, were
several Hannah Frank drawings and I was immediately taken by them. I went for 'Moon Ballet'. I was struck by the drawings’ clear fluid lines and the balanced contrast of black against white. The drawing still hangs in my parent’s house.”
The book will include an image of Moon Ballet as well as a photograph of Hannah herself. Michael Meighan is also the author of ‘Glasgow Smells: A Nostalgic Tour of the City’.

HANNAH FRANK WORK PLACEMENT
We are lucky to have two students, Allan Madden and Cristen Sarg, working on cataloguing the Hannah Frank  and Lionel Levy archive at the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre in Glasgow.  Allan, who is studying at Glasgow University, and working towards a Masters in History of Art, told us: “I was attracted to this project for the
simple reason that I like Hannah Frank’s work, both her drawings and her later sculptures.  Any new information gathered on the life and working practice of an artist inevitably tells us more about the development of their work and of the time in which they lived. My aim
is to make the vast collection of information about Hannah Frank more accessible to those who, like me, are interested either in her art or in the history of the Jewish community in Glasgow.”  Allan added: “I
am cataloguing certain elements of the Hannah Frank Collection and also trying to discover whether Hannah had a solo exhibition at the McLellan Galleries, Glasgow, in the early to mid 1930s.”
Can any of our readers help with information about this exhibition? Preparations for the exhibition were mentioned in the Jewish Echo in the 1930s but we have no record of the actual event taking place.
Please get back to me if you know anything.

Glasgow University student Cristin Sarg has also been working with us on cataloguing the Hannah Frank archive, particularly the art exhibition catalogues where her work was featured.  We now have a substantial proportion of the hundreds of items making up the ‘Hannah Frank and Lionel Levy Archive’ at the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre catalogued and available for researchers to view.  The collection would be of interest to people doing research in the areas of Scottish
art, Jewish artists, women in Glasgow in the 1920s, and family life through Hannah’s letters and journals.    The SJAC is open on Friday mornings and some Thursday mornings by appointment.  Contact the SJAC
on in...@sjac.org.uk or tel 0141 332 4911.

REFRAMING OFFER FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE OLDER FRAMED PRINTS
If you own Hannah Frank prints that were mounted and framed before the advent of acid-free mounts then you may notice that your pictures have gone brown at the edge of the mount.  Gordon McCracken of McCracken
Framing in Glasgow writes:

“Often an older mount (the card which surrounds a print or original artwork, keeping it away from the glass) contained woodpulp.  Over time, acidic materials can leach from the mount - often indicated by
the bevel cut, where the inner edge of the mount 'frames' the print, having darkened from its original white. This indicates the possibility that the paper on which the print was made has/can become
marked by this leaching process. Similarly, behind the print, the materials (undermount, tapes, backboard) may be acidic, leading to discolouration coming through from the back of the paper.

To arrest this process of degradation, you should ask a framer to open up the frame package and replace all mounting materials with at least conservation grade quality (ie materials which have been 'buffered' to
protect any artwork in contact with them from adverse effects). This done, the glass and moulding should be thoroughly cleaned, and the frame package retaped ready for display.”

Gordon has offered to remount any older Hannah Frank prints with new, acid-free mounts and also to clean the glass, for a very reasonable offer of £10 each framed print, up to Easter this year. You need to
take your framed prints to Gordon’s studio at Mercat House, 19 Argyle Court, 1103 Argyle St, Glasgow G3 8ND. It’s just behind the Hidden Lane Gallery where the Hannah Frank exhibition took place in Autumn
2010.  Call or email first on 0141 221 9002 or Mobile: 07946 526110, email gor...@mccrackenframing.co.uk
Normal hours are 10am - 5pm, Mon-Fri, or by appointment.


INTERFAITH MAGAZINE FEATURE
Judith Coyle and I were asked to write a feature on Hannah Frank for a
magazine called ‘Faith Initiative’. This magazine is distributed
across the country, particularly to schools and other educational
establishments, to promote religious harmony by educating the public
in the diverse nature of religious belief.
Our article, illustrated with Hannah’s art, looked at Hannah Frank’s
Jewish life.  The magazine also published one of the commended poems
from our  Hannah Frank Poetry Competition, ‘Egypt’s Agonies’, by Rhona
McKellar from the Isle of Harris.  Rhona based her poem on the drawing
‘Then to the Rolling Heaven’ from 1928. The magazine reproduced this
picture too.
Rhona, who entered in the 16 to 18-year-olds category, told us: “This
was the first poem I had ever written but I thought that having it
from the point of view of an Egyptian would be a good way of
emphasising the tragedy of the 10th plague. Although clearly a
victorious story in some ways, I see it as a devastating story of
pride and deep sadness. I had been thinking about this story for a
while as it’s both triumphant and horrifying in turns, and Hannah's
picture seemed to fit with the theme”.  Rhona was unavailable to
accept her prize at the prize awards ceremony last summer because she
was doing voluntary work in Nepal.  She’s now at medical school.  An
all-round success I’d say!  You can see her fantastic poem (and all
the other winning poems) on our website at
http://www.hannahfrank.org.uk/competition/index.htm

EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS SOUGHT FOR NEW POETRY BOOK
Rhona’s entry was one of more than 500 poems we received as part of
the Hannah Frank Poetry Competition we ran last year in honour of my
late aunt, who was a poet as well as an artist.   Although we
published a catalogue of the winning poems at the time of the prize
giving ceremony at Kelvingrove Art Gallery (available for sale from
the website at a very reasonable £5.00, post free in the UK, or £4.00
for the schools version), we’re now looking to produce a book of a
larger selection of the fantastic poems we received.

This promises to be a lovely publication, and will be illustrated with
my aunt's drawings plus additional little sketches - never before seen
- that she drew in the margins of the diaries that she kept through
her teens and early twenties.

I'm looking for a small group of people, probably based in Glasgow,
who might like to be part of the editorial team and help bring this
book together.  The large box of printouts of all the poems we
received for the competition are currently sorted by age group.  They
need to be re-sorted by Hannah Frank image, and we then need to make a
choice of which poems - children's entries and adult entries - to
include for each image. I'm staying in Glasgow until mid-April, and
I'd love to get all this done before I leave, though I'm concentrating
on my PhD for most of that time and need to delegate as far as I can.
If you're interested, please get back to me by email and let me know
what times of day/evening/weekend are best for you, and suggestions of
nice cafes (or offers of nice sitting-rooms) where the editorial team
could meet to do this work.

Best wishes

Fiona Frank
Niece of the late Hannah Frank