Jane Babette Schenthal
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Jane Schenthal Frank (born Jane Babette Schenthal) (July 25, 1918 – May 31, 1986) was an American multidisciplinary artist, known as a
painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
, sculptor, mixed media artist, illustrator, and textile artist. Her landscape-like, mixed-media abstract paintings are included in public collections, including those of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the
Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...
. She studied with artists,
Hans Hofmann Hans Hofmann (March 21, 1880 – February 17, 1966) was a German-born American painter, renowned as both an artist and teacher. His career spanned two generations and two continents, and is considered to have both preceded and influenced Abstrac ...
and Norman Carlberg.


Work

Jane Frank was a pupil of the painter,
Hans Hofmann Hans Hofmann (March 21, 1880 – February 17, 1966) was a German-born American painter, renowned as both an artist and teacher. His career spanned two generations and two continents, and is considered to have both preceded and influenced Abstrac ...
. She can be categorized stylistically as an
abstract expressionist Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...
, but one who draws primary inspiration from the natural world, particularly
landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...
— landscape "as metaphor", she once explained. Her later painting refers more explicitly to
aerial landscape ::''(This article concerns painting and other non-photographic media. Otherwise, see aerial photography)'' Aerial landscape art includes paintings and other visual arts which depict or evoke the appearance of a landscape from a perspective abov ...
s, while her sculpture tends toward
minimalism In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...
. Chronologically and stylistically, Jane Frank's work straddles both the
modern Modern may refer to: History * Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Phil ...
and the contemporary (even
postmodern Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...
) periods. She referred to her works generally as " inscapes".


The early years


Training in commercial art

Jane Frank (when she was still Jane Schenthal) attended the progressive Park School and received her initial artistic training at the Maryland Institute of Arts and Sciences (now known as the Maryland Institute College of Art), earning in 1935 a diploma in commercial art and
fashion Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion in ...
illustration An illustration is a decoration, interpretation or visual explanation of a text, concept or process, designed for integration in print and digital published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vid ...
. She then acquired further training in New York City at what is now the
Parsons School of Design Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatt ...
(then called the New York School of Fine and Applied Art), from which she graduated in 1939. In New York, she also studied at the New Theatre School. Her schooling complete, she began working in advertising design and acting in summer stock theatre. From the sources, it is unclear whether she worked in these fields while still in New York, or only after returning to Baltimore. We do know, however, that she began painting seriously in 1940.


Becoming a painter

In a letter to
Thomas Yoseloff __NOTOC__ Alfred Smith Barnes (January 28, 1817 – February 17, 1888) was an American publisher and philanthropist. Early life Barnes was born in New Haven, Connecticut, to Eli Barnes of Southington, Connecticut, a farmer and innkeeper, who fo ...
, she wrote (quoted in Yoseloff's ''Retrospective'', 1975, p. 34) that "prior to 1940 my background had been entirely in commercial art" and that when she began painting seriously, she had to "put behind me everything I had so carefully learned in the schools". She began a study of the history of painting and "went through a progression of spatial conceptions" from
cave painting In archaeology, Cave paintings are a type of parietal art (which category also includes petroglyphs, or engravings), found on the wall or ceilings of caves. The term usually implies prehistoric origin, and the oldest known are more than 40,000 ye ...
through the Renaissance, then concentrating on Cézanne,
Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
, and De Kooning. "I was also much concerned with texture, and heavy paint", she adds.


Marriage and family - and children's books

After returning to
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was d ...
, she married Herman Benjamin Frank in 1941. According to the biography in " Baltimore County Women, 1930-1975" listed below, Jane had previously been working as a commercial artist "for department stores and advertising agencies", but she "gave up her career in commercial art for marriage and a family" (p. 16). After marrying, she signed her works consistently as "Jane Frank", apparently never including a maiden name or middle initial. Her husband, a
builder Builder may refer to: * Construction worker, who specializes in building work * Carpenter, a skilled craftsman who works with wood * General contractor, that specializes in building work ** Subcontractor * Builder (detergent), a component of moder ...
, constructed their home, including a
studio A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design ...
for his wife. With the initial demands of a new marriage and family presumably beginning to relax a bit, Jane Frank returned seriously to painting in 1947 (according to Stanton, p. 9). In the following decade, while raising a family and rapidly developing as a serious
painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
, the young mother also illustrated three children's books. ''Monica Mink'' (1948), featured along with Jane Frank's illustrations, a whimsical text by the artist herself, entirely in verse, relating a tale in which (according to the review published by the National Council of Teachers of English) "In rhyme the obstreperous Monica Mink 'who wouldn't listen and didn't think' is finally taught that 'all Mother Minks know best'.

Thomas Yoseloff's ''The Further Adventures of Till Eulenspiegel'' (1957, New York City), featured Jane Frank's block prints, which already show a penchant for collage-like textural juxtapositions and strong diagonal composition. Jane Frank's 1986 obituary in the ''Baltimore Sun'' mentions that she published a third children's book, entitled ''Eadie the Pink Elephant'', with both text and pictures by the artist, and this is confirmed in an excerpt from ''Publishers Weekly'' available onlin


Health catastrophes and recovery

Art history Emeritus, professor emerita, Phoebe B. Stanton of Johns Hopkins University mentioned that twice in the 20 years after 1947, Jane Frank suffered from illnesses which "interrupted the work for long periods". The first of these catastrophes was a serious car accident in 1952, requiring multiple major surgeries and extensive convalescence, and the second was a "serious and potentially life-threatening illness" soon after her 1958 solo show at the Baltimore Museum of Art. The latter illness was so severe, according to Stanton, that it interrupted Jane Frank's painting work for about two years.


The latter 1950s to late 1960s


Encountering Hans Hofmann, and discovering a "sculptural landscape"

Health problems notwithstanding, the latter 1950s proved decisively fruitful for Jane Frank as a serious artist. Having fairly well recovered from her injuries in the traumatic 1952 accident, she studied for a period in 1956 with the great
abstract expressionist Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...
painter
Hans Hofmann Hans Hofmann (March 21, 1880 – February 17, 1966) was a German-born American painter, renowned as both an artist and teacher. His career spanned two generations and two continents, and is considered to have both preceded and influenced Abstrac ...
in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and this mentoring gave her a jolt of inspiration and encouragement. She soon had solo exhibitions at the Baltimore Museum of Art (1958), the Corcoran Gallery of Art (1962), the
Bodley Gallery The Bodley Gallery was an art gallery in New York City, from the late 1940s through the early 1980s. The Bodley specialized in contemporary and modern art. David Mann was director of the gallery during its heyday and Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Braun (a.k. ...
in New York (1963) and Goucher College (1963), among others. She also, in 1962 (1961 according to some sources), won a
Rinehart Rinehart may refer to: People *Buck Rinehart (1946–2015), American politician *Cowboy Slim Rinehart (1911–1948), American singer *Frank Rinehart (1861–1928), American artist *Gina Rinehart (born 1954), Australian businesswoman *James Rineh ...
Fellowship, enabling her to study with Norman Carlberg at the
Rinehart School of Sculpture The Rinehart School of Sculpture is the MFA granting sculpture program of the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) located in Baltimore, Maryland. It was ranked in 2016 as the #3 MFA degree program in the country for sculpture by U.S. News & ...
at Maryland Institute College of Art. This might seem a sudden and late detour away from painterly pursuits, but it is a logical step: the canvases in the 1962 Corcoran show, such as "Crags and Crevices" and "Rockscape II", already feature passages that are sculpturally "built up" with thick mounds of gesso (or "spackle", as Stanton tends to call it). Jane Frank's preoccupation with space was evident even before her paintings became overtly "sculptural" in their use of mixed media. Of the paintings in the 1962 Corcoran Gallery show, she tells Phoebe Stanton: "I was trying to pit mass against void and make it look as though there were passages that went way back - that's why 'crevice' is in so many of the titles" (Stanton, p. 15). Indeed, "Crags and Crevices" (70"x 50", oil and spackle on canvas), completed in 1961, dominated the show.


Combining diverse materials and techniques

Soon after the month-long Corcoran Gallery solo exhibition, Jane Frank began to apply not just spackle but a variety of other materials - sea-weathered or broken glass, charred driftwood, pebbles, what appears to be crushed graphite or silica, and even glued-on patches of separately painted and encrusted
canvas Canvas is an extremely durable plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, shelters, as a support for oil painting and for other items for which sturdiness is required, as well as in such fashion objects as handbags ...
(canvas
collage Collage (, from the french: coller, "to glue" or "to stick together";) is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole. ...
) - to her jagged,
abstract expressionist Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...
paintings. "I wanted work that was
painterly Painterliness is a concept based on ''german: malerisch'' ('painterly'), a word popularized by Swiss art historian Heinrich Wölfflin (1864–1945) to help focus, enrich and standardize the terms being used by art historians of his time to cha ...
but with an actual three-dimensional space", she later wrote (Yoseloff 1975, pp. 37–39). Jane Frank's first solo show at New York City's
Bodley Gallery The Bodley Gallery was an art gallery in New York City, from the late 1940s through the early 1980s. The Bodley specialized in contemporary and modern art. David Mann was director of the gallery during its heyday and Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Braun (a.k. ...
(1963), as well as her 1965 solo show at Baltimore's International Gallery, featured many of these radically dense and variegated mixed media paintings.


"Apertured", multiple-canvas paintings

Later she began making irregular holes in the canvases ("apertures", as she called them: the earliest example is "Winter Windows", 1966–1967), disclosing deeper layers of painted
canvas Canvas is an extremely durable plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, shelters, as a support for oil painting and for other items for which sturdiness is required, as well as in such fashion objects as handbags ...
underneath (so-called "double canvases" - and sometimes triple canvases), with painted-on "false shadows", etc. - increasingly invoking the third dimension, creating tactile, sculptural effects while remaining within the convention of the framed, rectangular oil painting. The apertures also suggest a view into some sort of
psychological Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between t ...
interior, as though the second canvas - seen only partially, through the hole in the forward canvas - were some half-concealed secret, perhaps even another whole painting that we will never see. Stanton (p. 24) also notes that Jane Frank worked out a method - unspecified - of stiffening the apertures' often jagged edges so that they held their shape and flatness. These creations are a type of " shaped canvas", though very different from the shaped canvases of Frank Stella and others more commonly associated with this term. In much of her output before the late 1960s, Frank seems less interested in color than in tonality and texture, often employing the grayscale to create a sense of depth or motion from light to dark, this frequently moving in a diagonal (as in "Winter's End", 1958), and otherwise employing one basic hue (as with the earthy reds in "Plum Point", 1964). However, the later, "windowed" paintings show a sharper interest in vivid color relationships: indeed, Yoseloff (p. 20) notes that with the later paintings "she has gone to bolder colors". This is especially true, as he notes, in the "aerial" paintings, of which an early and monumental example is "Aerial View no. 1" (1968, 60 inches by 84 inches, collection of the Turner Auditorium complex at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University). This was one of the artist's favorites, according to ''Baltimore County Women'' ee below


Standing apart

While these highly complex and laborious constructions (she often called them "three-dimensional paintings") moved her well beyond the vocabulary of the improvisatory, so-called " action painting" usually associated with American
abstract expressionism Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...
, they also had virtually nothing to do with the pop art and
minimalism In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...
which were then the rage of the 1960s New York art scene. Furthermore, they bore little resemblance to the serene " color field" paintings of Morris Louis, Helen Frankenthaler, or Mark Rothko. Whether brooding or exuberant, the (as it were) geologically deposited, erupted, eroded, and gouged canvases of Jane Frank stand apart from all else. Perhaps this style could be called "geomorphic abstraction" - though no such term can be found as a stylistic category in art history books. This standoffish
aesthetic Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed th ...
position, her chosen departure from the career-making New York City scene, and the fact that her overall output was not very large (by some standards at least), were factors that limited her career and her contemporary impact on the course of
American art Visual art of the United States or American art is visual art made in the United States or by U.S. artists. Before colonization there were many flourishing traditions of Native American art, and where the Spanish colonized Spanish Colonial arc ...
. Yet perhaps, as time goes on, present-day art lovers who get to know these pieces will agree with Professor Stanton that they are powerful and beautiful creations, worthy of contemplation and admiration on their intrinsic merits - regardless of what was supposedly fashionable in 1960-something:


After 1967: sculptures, and further development of the "apertured" paintings


Sculpture: depths and shadows, reflections and refractions

In the late 1960s, Jane Frank turned her energies toward the creation of free-standing sculpture, i.e., sculptures properly speaking, as opposed to "sculptural paintings" or mixed media works on canvas. The sculptures, with their clean lines and surfaces, often in sleek lucite or aluminium, completely dispense with the earthy, gritty qualities of those "sculptural landscape" canvases. Busch (1974) quotes Frank as saying: "I begin orkingfrom a drawing or cardboard mockup. I give my welding and aluminium pieces to a
machinist A machinist is a tradesperson or trained professional who not only operates machine tools, but also has the knowledge of tooling and materials required to create set ups on machine tools such as milling machines, grinders, lathes, and drilling ...
with whom I work quite closely". There were more solo exhibitions, at venues including New York City's
Bodley Gallery The Bodley Gallery was an art gallery in New York City, from the late 1940s through the early 1980s. The Bodley specialized in contemporary and modern art. David Mann was director of the gallery during its heyday and Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Braun (a.k. ...
again in 1967, Morgan State University (1967), Goucher College (for the second time) in 1968, London's Alwin Gallery in 1971, the Galerie de l'Université, Paris (1972), the Philadelphia Art Alliance (1975), and a major retrospective at Towson State College (now Towson University) in 1975. She also won the Sculpture Prize at the 1983 Maryland Artists Exhibition (source: Watson-Jones).


Aerial landscape paintings

Even after 1967, when Jane Frank began making sculptures, grappling with new media such as plastics and metals, she maintained her ever-evolving production of mixed media paintings on
canvas Canvas is an extremely durable plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, shelters, as a support for oil painting and for other items for which sturdiness is required, as well as in such fashion objects as handbags ...
, virtually until the end of her life. Continuing her exploration of the possibilities of multiple-canvas, "apertured" paintings, she began to create her " Aerial Series" pieces, which came more and more explicitly to suggest landscapes seen from above. Especially noteworthy and striking are the "Night Landings" paintings, such as "Night Landings: Sambura" (1970), with the city grid glinting below like a dark jewel in a deep, nocturnal blue river valley. The 1975 Yoseloff retrospective catalogue listed below is very illuminating on these latter developments, and the color plates (which include images of some of the sculptures) are of higher quality than those in the Stanton book. Several sources note that Jane Frank also designed rugs and tapestries; a color photograph showing detail from one of these textile works is reproduced in the Ann Avery book listed below. Jane Frank died on Saturday, May 31, 1986. In some sources, her place of residence is listed as
Owings Mills, Maryland Owings Mills is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. It is a suburb of Baltimore. Per the 2020 census, the population was 35,674. Owings Mills is home to the northern terminus o ...
, which is a near suburb of
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was d ...
. The 1986 Watson-Jones book's entry on Jane Frank states her address as "1300 Woods Hole Road, Towson, Maryland 21204". Towson is another near suburb of Baltimore.


Discussion of Jane Frank's work

Phoebe Stanton writes that "
landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...
" is for Jane Frank a way of conveying ideas which (to Stanton) recall Heidegger's definition of poetry, which included "the recreation of the experience of standing 'in the presence of the gods and to be exposed to the essential proximity of things' ". According to the jacket notes of the Stanton book, ''Pictures on Exhibit'' magazine commented in a similar vein, saying that these landscapes are "to a compellingly strong degree, poetic evocations of communion with Nature's basic essentials". We are in direct contact with the primal forces, exposed and profoundly alone. These works are at once sensually compelling and incorporeal — "out-of-body", so to speak. And as Julia M. Busch points out, even the sculptures avoid reference to anything recognizably, bodily human. Stating that Frank's sculptures are "environmental", Busch goes on to define this term in a way that points to their "beyond-human" quality: " Environmental sculpture is never made to work at exactly human scale, but is sufficiently larger or smaller than the scale to avoid confusion with the human image in the eyes of the viewer." Also, the canvases of the 1960s, for all their
landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...
-like qualities, usually avoid anything that can be read as a horizon or a sky: we literally don't know which way is up; for as Stanton (p. 12) points out, Jane Frank - starting with "Winter's End" (1958) - avoids horizontal orientation in favor of strong diagonals. Furthermore, in this painting, as in many others of the next decade, the scale is undecidable. Stanton, again speaking of "Winter's End", writes: "One is given no indication of the size of the scene; the way through which winter passes could be either a mountain gorge or a minute water course". Plenty of cues are there that this is some sort of
landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...
, and Frank herself avows it: "The beginning of my efforts to make my own statement, I would trace to my first visit to the Phillips Gallery....
Landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...
was a natural metaphor, and so it is still for me today, in my three-dimensional double canvases". Summing up the ambiguous position of Jane Frank's work on canvas with respect to both landscape art and pure abstraction, a reviewer for ''The Art Gallery'' magazine wrote of her 1971 solo show at London's Alwin Gallery: "Her richly textured canvases evoke a world of crags and forests, rivers and plains, in terms which are entirely non-representational." The catalogue of the 1963 Bodley Gallery show contains a long essay by the artist, and the following three quoted passages capture many of the concerns described here: (1) On constructing her metaphorical landscape vocabulary: "I prefer to create my own landscapes or vocabulary of shapes and patterns. However, it is rock and mineral substances, their veins and surfaces, projections and infinite hollows, which spark my particular fantasy - also beach wood, well worn with time, that is to be found on the water's edge. Issues of space have always been one of my prime concerns, and these substances seem to relate most closely to this concern. These then are the metaphor..." (2) On the quality of interiority in her works: "It is also an attempt to penetrate the surface of an object, presenting not only the outside but what occurs within - the essence or core." (3) On the essential aloneness of her vision: "The artist must create his own space, of his own time and personal vision. The result is not a unique image for the sake of 'newness', but rather for the sake of the artist, who must be concerned with it daily. These days are spent quite alone." These pieces of the late 1950s and 1960s never lapse into the complaisantly decorative: there is a certain deliberate instability, often even violence, that prevents that. This quality comes through in another remark from Dr. Stanton's book. She's speaking of "Crags and Crevices", but it fits many of the works: "Nothing in the painting is still, for the big forms seem to hover in mid-air, colliding as they fall. There are provocative and startling contrasts between passages of thin, transparent paint and thick impasto, filled with striatures left by the palette knife." Even 1968's "Aerial View No. 1", despite the spatial hint of the title, is far from literal. Certain features of structure and color render a literal interpretation of this image as an aerial landscape difficult or even impossible. The attempt at interpretation is both invited and repulsed. But by about 1970, with the "Night Landings" paintings, there was a definite shift away from the previous decade's stubbornly refractive attitude. The "Night Landings" offer a much more definite sense of scale and viewpoint, especially with the aid of the titles. "Night Landings: Nairobi" is not disorienting in the least: we know where we are; we know we're in a plane, we know the plane is landing, and we even know roughly what time it is: we are looking down, and we see vividly the city named in the title, with the surrounding land and water. Furthermore, the fact that we see a city down there means that - at least implicitly - there are ''people'' in this painting. Yoseloff, in his 1975 "Retrospective" book, enthuses: "Perhaps the ultimate achievement in the direction in which Mrs. Frank has been tending is her series of "night landings".... Now, more than ever, the viewer is deeply involved, and he can feel himself carried downward into the
landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...
that is the canvas before him" A staunch modernist might scoff that with the "Night Landings" of 1970 Jane Frank's art begins to "go gentle into that good night" (perhaps even lapsing into "
postmodernism Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or Rhetorical modes, mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by philosophical skepticism, skepticis ...
"). But if these more literal
aerial landscape ::''(This article concerns painting and other non-photographic media. Otherwise, see aerial photography)'' Aerial landscape art includes paintings and other visual arts which depict or evoke the appearance of a landscape from a perspective abov ...
s - created in 1970 and after - lose some of the tension that gives the earlier paintings their distinctive power, they nevertheless address, with an intensely intimate delight, a perspective on reality which we must remember was still quite young in 1970, at least as a painterly subject. In "Aerial Perception" (1985), author Margret Dreikausen sees Jane Frank's
aerial landscape ::''(This article concerns painting and other non-photographic media. Otherwise, see aerial photography)'' Aerial landscape art includes paintings and other visual arts which depict or evoke the appearance of a landscape from a perspective abov ...
s as sharing the spirit of the work of artists such as Georgia O'Keeffe,
Susan Crile Susan Crile (born 1942) is an American painter and printmaker. Biography Crile was born in 1942 in Cleveland, Ohio. She attended Bennington College, graduating in 1965. In 1972 Crile was interviewed by Paul Cummings for the Archives of Amer ...
, and others, in creating images which "reflect contemporary interest in reality", experienced from a historically new vantage point. Dreikausen insists that this art "does not merely show landscape from the air" but incorporates the "earthbound vision" into "remembered images from both spaces".Dreikausen, Margret, "Aerial Perception: The Earth as Seen from Aircraft and Spacecraft and Its Influence on Contemporary Art" page 63 Dreikausen also sees Frank's aerial paintings as consisting of two basic types: the "day scenes" (such as "Ledge of Light") and the "night landings" (such as "Night Landing: Sambura").Dreikausen, Margret, "Aerial Perception: The Earth as Seen from Aircraft and Spacecraft and Its Influence on Contemporary Art" page 27 The day scenes show a fascination with the play of actual shadows and false, painted ones, "inviting the viewer more closely to inspect the textures on the canvas and its 'reality' ". In the night landings, by contrast, the city is the focus, nestled in the canvas's aperture, like a precious jewel in a dark velvet box, with its "enticing twinkling lights", suggesting "the anticipation of the unknown, mysterious city.... The use of beads and glitter, partially covered with paint, conveys a sense of personal landscape". The 1999 Benezit book's entry on Jane Frank takes it as a given that her works on the canvas may be summarized as semi-abstract aerial views: "Sa peinture, abstraite, fait cependant reference a un paysagisme aerien, comme vu d'avion." ("Her paintings, though abstract, nevertheless make reference to
aerial landscape ::''(This article concerns painting and other non-photographic media. Otherwise, see aerial photography)'' Aerial landscape art includes paintings and other visual arts which depict or evoke the appearance of a landscape from a perspective abov ...
s, as viewed from an airplane.")


Collections

Jane Frank's paintings and mixed media works on canvas are in the collections of the Corcoran Gallery of Art ("Amber Ambience", 1964), the
Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...
, the Baltimore Museum of Art ("Winter's End", 1958), the
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art ("The Johnson Museum") is an art museum located on the northwest corner of the Arts Quad on the main campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Its collection includes two windows from Frank Lloyd W ...
at Cornell University ("Red Painting", 1966), the
Arkansas Arts Center The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts (AMFA), formerly known as the Arkansas Arts Center, is an art museum located in MacArthur Park, Little Rock, Arkansas. The museum is undergoing an expansion and renovation. During this time, it is closed to the ...
in Little Rock ("Web Of Rock", 1960), and the
Evansville Museum The Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science is a general-interest museum located on the Ohio riverfront in downtown Evansville, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1904, it is one of Southern Indiana's most established and significant cultural ...
("Quarry III", 1963). Her works are in many other public, academic, corporate, and private collections. Her sculptures can be found in public collections including at Towson State University.


References


Books

#
American Association of University Women The American Association of University Women (AAUW), officially founded in 1881, is a non-profit organization that advances equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research. The organization has a nationwide network of 170,000 ...
, ( Towson, Maryland, Branch)
"Baltimore County Women, 1930-1975"
(
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was d ...
: The Sunpapers, 1976) [Please note: the 1981 Ann Avery book listed below mentions this book and credits George Rogers with the editorship, either of the book or perhaps only of the Jane Frank article - it is not clear. The book is a collection of profiles of forty Baltimore County women "who distinguished themselves" in diverse fields (including opera singer Rosa Ponselle and golfer Carol Mann), compiled as part of a project celebrating the 1976 United States Bicentennial. The full-page Jane Frank article includes a photo of the artist in her studio.] # Avery, Ann (ed.)
"American Artists of Renown, 1981-1982"
ncludes one color plate image of a Jane Frank work, along with a bio(Wilson Publishing Co.: Gilmer, Texas, 1981) ; # Benezit, E. (ed.)
"Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, desinateurs, et graveurs de tous les temps et tous les pays"
Critical and Documentary Dictionary of Painters, Sculptors, Draftsmen, and Engravers of All Times and All Countries" (Gründ, Paris, 1999) lease note: in 2006, an English language edition of the Benezit Dictionary of Artists became available for the first time.] [see Benezit Dictionary of Artists] # Busch, Julia M.
"A Decade of Sculpture: the New Media in the 1960s"
ontains three color and two b&w images of Jane Frank's sculptures, as well as some discussion of the work and several quotations from the artist(The Art Alliance Press: Philadelphia
Associated University Presses
London, 1974) # Chiarmonte, Paula
"Women Artists in the United States: a Selective Bibliography and Resource Guide on the Fine and Decorative Arts"
(G. K. Hall & Co., Boston, 1990) ntry on Jane Frank is on page 606 # Creps, Bob ; and Howard Creps
Biographical encyclopedia of American painters, sculptors & engravers of the U.S. : Colonial to 2002
( Land O'Lakes, Florida : Dealer's Choice Books, 2002) n two volumes: Jane Frank bio on p. 475 of first volume # Davenport, Ray
"Davenport's Art Reference and Price Guide, Gold Edition"
( Ventura, California, 2005) ; # Dreikausen, Margret
"Aerial Perception: The Earth as Seen from Aircraft and Spacecraft and Its Influence on Contemporary Art"
(Associated University Presses: Cranbury, NJ; London, England;
Mississauga, Ontario Mississauga ( ), historically known as Toronto Township, is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is situated on the shores of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, adjoining the western border of Toronto. With a popul ...
: 1985) ncludes color plate images of two of Jane Frank's aerial paintings">aerial_painting.html" ;"title="ncludes color plate images of two of Jane Frank's aerial painting">ncludes color plate images of two of Jane Frank's aerial paintings # Dunbier, Lonnie Pierson (Ed.)
"The Artists Bluebook: 34,000 North American Artists to March 2005"
(Scottsdale, Arizona, 2005) [Please note: Worldcat lists Roger Dunbier as the editor of this work, whereas the Askart.com website - which publishes the book - names Lonnie Pierson Dunbier (presumably married to Mr. Dunbier) as editor.] # Frank, Jane
''Jane Frank''
(pub. New York, N.Y. : Bodley Gallery, 1963) atalogue for solo exhibition, with dates given as Oct. 22 - Nov. 9 lso available in MICA library vertical file; see 'External links' for access help. Additionally, Worldcat has another listing for a book, in the holdings of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, by "Jane Frank" and entitle
''Jane Frank''
there is no mention of the Bodley Gallery, but under "Details," Worldcat has "Contents: Sculptural paintings : Jane Frank". Presumably this is the same 1963 catalogue; or perhaps it is the catalogue of Jane Frank's 1967 show at the Bodley (. # Frank, Jane; Arthur Mayer; Alwin Gallery. ''The Sculptural Landscape of Jane Frank'' [catalogue for exhibition at Alwin Gallery, 56 Brook Street, London, Jan. 5-29, 1971.] Here is a link to the catalogue record of the copy at the National Art Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The book is also available in the MICA library vertical file on Jane Frank; see 'External links' for access help. This catalogue (confusingly taking the same title as the Stanton book) amounts nearly to a full monograph on the artist, with many images of the artist and the work, lists of exhibitions and other career summary material, and an extensive critical essay by Arthur Mayer. The Victoria and Albert Museum library description reads: "Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Alwin Gallery, London, 5 Jan. - 29 Jan. 1971. Text By Arthur Mayer." # Frank, Jane
"Monica Mink"
(Vanguard Press, New York City, 1948) hildren's book authored and illustrated by Jane Frank # International Gallery
''Jane Frank: sculptural paintings''
(
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was d ...
: International Gallery, 1965) olo exhibition catalogue (Also available in the "Jane Frank" vertical file at the MICA library) # Jacques Cattell Press, ed.
"Who's Who in American Art"
1980 ( New York City : R.R. Bowker, 1980) ane frank entry pp. 240–241 # Jacques Cattell Press, ed.
"Who's Who in American Art"
1984 ( New York City ; London : R.R. Bowker, 1984) ane frank entry p. 303 # Meissner, Gunter
"Allgemeines Kunstlerlexikon: Die Bildenen Kuntsler aller Zeiten und Volker"
Complete Dictionary of Artists of all Times and All Peoples"(Pub. Saur: Munich, Leipzig, 2005) 4-line Jane Frank entry on page 46, vol. 44 # Opitz, Glenn B., ed.,
"Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers"
(
Poughkeepsie, NY Poughkeepsie ( ), officially the City of Poughkeepsie, separate from the Town of Poughkeepsie around it) is a city in the U.S. state of New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsie ...
: Apollo, 1983) # Opitz, Glenn B., ed.
"Dictionary of American Sculptors"
(
Poughkeepsie, NY Poughkeepsie ( ), officially the City of Poughkeepsie, separate from the Town of Poughkeepsie around it) is a city in the U.S. state of New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsie ...
: Apollo, 1984) # Yoseloff, Thomas
"The Further Adventures of Till Eulenspiegel"
hildren's book with block print illustrations by Jane Frank( New York City : Thomas Yoseloff 1957) ibrary of Congress Catalogue Card Number 57-6892 # Yoseloff, Thomas
"Jane Frank: A Retrospective Exhibition"
[This exhibition catalogue amounts to another full monograph on the artist, with very high quality color and b&w plates, extensive textual discussion and quotation of the artist, and much specific and detailed information on Jane Frank's life, career, and individual artworks: 51 pp.] (A. S. Barnes: New York City and London, 1975)


Other readings (articles, etc.)

* Lisa Roney. "Contemporary American Women Sculptors" eview of book: Watson-Jones, Virginia. ''Contemporary American Women Sculptors''. Oryx Press, 1986.''Woman's Art Journal'', Vol. 8, No. 1, 54. Spring - Summer, 1987. Roney notes that the volume celebrates a rich variety of creations, including "works that amuse (Viola Frey, b. 1932), threaten (Joan Danzinger, b. 1934), or maintain an abstract cool (Jane Frank, b. 1918)" . 54 Link to
JSTOR JSTOR (; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library founded in 1995 in New York City. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary sources as well as current issues of j ...
record of the revie
here


Footnotes


External links


Smithsonian American Art Museum: Jane Frank
the museum's page on Jane Frank)
Access to Smithsonian Institution artist file folder on Jane Frank
(Simply type 'jane frank' into search box and click; on next page, click the name again for more detail): "Folder(s) may include exhibition announcements, newspaper and/or magazine clippings, press releases, brochures, reviews, invitations, illustrations, resumes, artist's statements, exhibition catalogs."
Maryland Institute College of Art, Decker Library, vertical file listings
In a special archive,
MICA Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into extremely thin elastic plates. This characteristic is described as perfect basal cleavage. Mica is ...
maintains approximately 400 vertical files on ''"people affiliated with MICA such as alumni, faculty, visiting artists, and staff and administrators, as well as local art institutions and MICA-related items of history."'' Listed here is a file on Jane Frank. The web page includes information on how to access file contents. This vertical file includes essential materials such as Jane Frank's 1986 obituary in the ''
Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries. Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...
'' and the catalogue of her 1963 exhibition at the Bodley Gallery in New York, as well as the catalogue of her 1971 solo exhibition at London's Alwin Gallery.
French art criticism archive page (at www.archivcriticart.org)
listing an art review in the French journal ''Les lettres françaises'' for 27 September 1972, in the section called "In the Galleries" ("Dans les galeries") {{DEFAULTSORT:Frank, Jane 1918 births 1986 deaths Abstract expressionist artists American women painters American contemporary painters Contemporary sculptors 20th-century American sculptors Mixed-media artists Jewish American artists Jewish painters Jewish sculptors Landscape artists Painters from Maryland Parsons School of Design alumni Artists from Baltimore Postmodern artists American women sculptors 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women artists Sculptors from Maryland Park School of Baltimore alumni 20th-century American Jews