
Tempest II, 2020
Oil, acrylic, felt, and gesso on board
60 x 48 inches
Emergence, 2020
Oil and stone on board
36 x 24 inches
Woman (Looking at Us), 2020
Oil, cloth, and stones on board
48 x 33 1/2 inches
Fire Tree, 2020
Archival pigment print on bamboo paper
21 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches
Horizons, Petals, Monkey, 2020
Archival pigment print on bamboo paper
21 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches
Horizon, Petals, 2020
Archival pigment print on bamboo paper
16 1/2 x 21 1/2 inches
Into Spring, 2020
Archival pigment print on bamboo paper
16 1/2 x 21 1/2 inches
Knowing the Moss, 2020
Archival pigment print on bamboo paper
16 1/2 x 21 1/2 inches
Assorted painted stones
Acrylic on bluestone
Dimensions variable
Assorted painted stones
Acrylic on bluestone
Dimensions variable
Assorted painted stones
Acrylic on bluestone
Dimensions variable
Breath, 2020
Acrylic, and photo paper
14 x 21 inches
As You Can See, 2018-2019
Oil, acrylic, graphite, paper, and stone on board
49 1/4 x 97 inches
Knowing By Heart, 2018-2019
Acrylic and oil on board
60 x 57 3/4 inches
Tempest, 2018-2019
Acrylic, oil, stone, and paper on board
36 3/4 x 48 3/4 inches
¿Or Was It Like This? I, 2018-2019
Oil, acrylic, graphite, paper, and stone on board
48 3/4 x 72 3/4 inches
Nighthead, 1971
Ceramic with acrylic
22 x 20 x 18 inches
Winged Woman, c. 1958
Wood
53 x 12 x 10 inches
Arching Woman, c. 1972
Ceramic
23 x 22 x 13 inches
Leaf Head, c. 1978
Ceramic
19 x 18 1/2 x 12 inches
Leap II, 1998-2000
Acrylic, oil, and collage on panel
54 x 48 1/4 inches
Nasturtium and Wall, 2007
Oil and encaustic on board
18 x 14 inches
Sky, 2009-2011
Archival pigment print on bamboo paper
16 x 21 1/4 inches
Edition of 9
Gravity, 2009-2011
Archival pigment print on bamboo paper
16 x 21 1/4 inches
Edition of 9
Ship Wreck II, 2009-2011
Archival pigment print on bamboo paper
16 x 21 1/4 inches
Edition of 9
Born in London, England, in 1933 Mary Frank moved to the United States with her family in 1940. In the early 1950s she studied with Hans Hoffman and Max Beckmann. Frank works across disciplines as a sculptor, painter, photographer and gifted ceramic artist. Without allegiance to any particular way of working or medium, Frank is fueled by her ever present urge for direct and honest expression. Frank's process begins with some form of abstraction from which she teases out what she describes as a pre-existing time and atmosphere where events can take place. Her recurring imagery act as an alphabet, combined in order to evoke feelings of grief, love, sorrow, ecstasy, mourning and exultation.
Mary Frank has been the subject of numerous museum exhibitions, including a retrospective organized by the Neuberger Museum in Purchase, New York in 1978; an in-depth look at her Persephone Series at the Brooklyn Museum in 1988; and Natural Histories, organized by the DeCordova Museum in 1988 which traveled to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Everson Museum of Art. In 2000, the Neuberger presented Encounters, a major traveling retrospective accompanied by a book by Linda Nochlin. In 2003, Experiences, a solo exhibition of Mary Frank’s paintings was organized by the Marsh Art Gallery, University of Richmond. In 1990 a major survey of Mary Frank's work, written by Hayden Herrera, was published by Abrams, New York. Shadows of Africa, a collaboration between the artist and poet Peter Matthiessen, was published by Abrams in 1992.
Frank's work is in the collection of numerous institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago, IL, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC , the Jewish Museum, New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC, the Newark Museum, NJ, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT. Frank lives and works in New York City and Woodstock, New York.
For the complete biography, please download the PDF.
A Burning Testament presents text by the writer and environmental activist Terry Tempest Williams with illustrations by the artist Mary Frank.
Over the coming weeks, we will be providing inside views into how our artists continue their practices to create new works of art, while sharing perspectives of their current, everyday lives. We are excited to welcome your thoughts about these features, as this initiative will bring together our friends, families, and colleagues.
Mary Frank in Conversation with David Hornung
January 25, 2020
Mary Frank in Conversation with John Yau, Terry Tempest Williams and Peter Kayafas
December 14, 2017
20131212 MARY FRANK from DC Moore Gallery on Vimeo.
Mary Frank in Conversation with John Yau
December 12, 2013 at DC Moore Gallery