HANNAH FRANK EXHIBITION OPENS IN YELL; 

EXHIBITION WILL VISIT LERWICK NEXT YEAR.  

THE WORK of the iconic Glasgow Jewish Artist Hannah Frank has come to Yell for the first time this summer and will also be on show next year in Lerwick.

The exhibition opened at the Old Haa Museum, Yell, on Monday 30 July, runs until 19 August, and comprises drawings, prints and sculpture from the artist’s 75 year career.

Hannah was born in 1908. She studied at Glasgow University, graduating in 1930 and also attended evening classes at the Glasgow School of Art from the 1920s for many decades.  Her trademark black and white drawings are resonant of the Art Nouveau period and contain a hint of Aubrey Beardsley and Jessie King yet they are very much her own. She completed them between 1925 and 1952. After this she turned to sculpture, studying under Benno Schotz, who became Her Majesty's Sculptor in Ordinary for Scotland.

Fiona Frank, the artist’s niece, attended the exhibition’s opening night where there was a screening of the film ‘Hannah Frank – The Spark Divine’ by award-winning film-maker Sarah Thomas.   The film explores the life of the artist as a young woman through her diaries and her poetry as well as her art, and includes interviews filmed with Hannah Frank in her late nineties.  Sculptor Andy Scott pronounced it “a very wonderful short film”.

Andrina Nisbet, Chairperson of the Old Haa Trust, said: “We are proud of the standard of art we show here and to have an artist as well-known as Hannah Frank is wonderful’.  Patricia Odie, a trustee, said “It was a pleasure to meet Fiona and be part of the opening night.  I love Hannah’s  work!”

At the exhibition at the Old Haa bronzes of Hannah’s sculptures are on sale as well as reproductions of her drawings as prints, cards and sets of assorted notelets.  

Next year the exhibition will run at the Shetland Museum and Archive, Hay’s Dock, Lerwick, from 2 Feb until 4 March 2013.

Hannah Frank, A Glasgow Artist: Drawings and Sculpture,

·         The Old Haa Museum, Yell, Shetland. Tel 01957 722 339. To 19 August. Opening hours: Tues, Wed, Thurs and Sat 10 am - 4 pm, Sun 2 pm - 5pm.  

·         Shetland Museum and Archive, Hay’s Dock, Lerwick, Shetland. Tel   01595 695057.         

2 February to 4 March 2013. Opening hours: Mon - Sat 10 am - 5 pm, Sun 12 noon - 5 pm