Hannah Frank was born into a Jewish immigrant family in Glasgow, Scotland in 1908 and studied at Glasgow University and Glasgow School of Art. She produced her trademark black-and-white drawings from the age 17, between 1927 and 1932 signing her work under her chosen pen name, 'Al Aaraaf'. In the 1950s she took up sculpture, studying with Estonian-born émigré, Benno Schotz, and her drawings and sculpture were exhibited frequently in the Royal Glasgow Institute, Royal Scottish Academy, and Royal Academy of Arts, London, among other institutions, throughout her long career.
Graphic artist and sculptor, Hannah Frank was born in the Gorbals, Glasgow, Scotland on 23 August 1908, one of four children of Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, Charles Fraiker (later Frank) and Miriam Lipctz, who came to Scotland in 1905. Her father owned a shop specialising in the design, sale and repair of photographic and scientific apparatus. Frank was educated at Strathbungo School and Albert Road Academy. In 1917, her family moved from 28a Abbotsford Place in the Gorbals to 72 Dixon Avenue in Crosshill. In 1926 Frank enrolled at the University of Glasgow to study English and Latin, taking evening classes in drawing, lithography and wood engraving at Glasgow School of Art. She published a number of poems and illustrations in the Glasgow University Magazine (GUM), most of which she signed 'Al Aaraaf', her chosen pen name taken from a poem by Edgar Allan Poe. Frank’s black and white, art nouveau-esque drawings were influenced by artists such as Margaret McDonald, Jessie M. King and Aubrey Beardsley; however, filled with elongated figures, mediaeval romanticism and a melancholic mood, they nevertheless presented her own distinct style. Frank graduated in 1930 and won the Glasgow School of Art Evening Prize for her artwork entitled Sorcery. In 1934 she received the school's James McBey Prize for wood engraving. After attending Jordanhill Teaching College, where she contributed drawings to the college publication, The New Dominie, Frank taught for a number of years, primarily at Campbellfield School. During this time, she continued contributing illustrations and poems to GUM. From 1930 to 1950 Frank regularly showed her drawings at the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts's annual exhibitions.
In 1939 Frank married Lionel Levy, a mathematics and science teacher whom she had met at university. Frank's works during the Second World War reflected the overall mood of the time and her experience as a Jew, with all three of her brothers enlisted in the British Army. In the 1940s Frank provided illustrations for various Jewish and Zionist organisations, including the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and Habonim. The couple were also founder members of the Glasgow Committee of the Friends of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and continued to be active members throughout their lives. Throughout her time teaching, Frank continued to attend evening art classes at Glasgow School of Art, taking up clay modelling under Paul Zunterstein and Benno Schotz. As she herself recalled, 'I only started sculpture to help with my anatomy' (Jewish Lives Project website), but she soon found her talent working within the new medium. Her small-scale figurative sculptures were executed in plaster, terracotta or bronze, such as the tender portrait of her father Charles aged 93 (1959), currently in the collection of the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre in Glasgow. The influence of Henry Moore, Schotz, and Zunterstein is visible in some of her sculpture; however, as in her drawings, she evolved her own personal style.
From the early 1950s, Frank worked solely in sculpture. Her bronze and plaster casts were exhibited at the Royal Glasgow Institute, Royal Scottish Academy, and Royal Academy of Arts, London (such as Resting Woman, shown in the 1963 Summer Exhibition). Her work was also shown at Stirling University, the Portico Gallery, Manchester, and in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. A retrospective of Frank's work took place in Glasgow in 1983 marking her 75th birthday. Her brother Arthur published a volume on Frank's drawings and sculptures in 1988. Frank spent her late years living with her husband at Westacres Care Home in Glasgow, until his death in 2003. In 2004, a travelling exhibition entitled Hannah Frank: A Glasgow Artist opened at Lancaster Museum and Gallery, touring subsequently to Inverness and London, as well as to Boston, Philadelphia, Connecticut and New York, USA. A revised second edition of Hannah Frank: A Glasgow Artist was published by the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre in 2004. In 2006, Frank donated one of her characteristic drawings from the time of her association with GUM, entitled Sun (1943), to Ben Uri Gallery and Museum in London. The last stop for the touring exhibition opened on the eve of Frank's 100th birthday at the University of Glasgow Chapel in 2008. A reception to mark the artist's achievements was held at the Scottish Parliament in October 2008. Hannah Frank died in Glasgow, Scotland on 18 December 2008 and was buried at Cathcart Cemetery, Glasgow. On the day of her death, the University of Glasgow awarded her an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters in recognition of her 'international distinction'. She was also posthumously awarded the Lord Provost's Award for Art by Glasgow City Council. Her work is represented in UK public collections including the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre, Glasgow School of Art, and Ben Uri Gallery and Museum, London, among others. In 2018 her work featured in Exodus: Masterworks from the Ben Uri Collection at Bushey Museum in Hertfordshire, and the following year the Hannah Frank 110th Birthday Exhibition was presented at Glasgow University Chapel (2019). Hannah Frank's posthumous legacy, including a dedicated website, continues to be championed by her niece, Dr Fiona Frank, Jewish cultural historian.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Hannah Frank]
Publications related to [Hannah Frank] in the Ben Uri Library