Born Glasgow, August 23, 1908. Died Glasgow, December 18, 2008, aged 100.
January 29, 2009 14:30An important figure in Scottish art, Hannah Frank enjoyed a distinguished 70-year career, writes Julia Weiner.
Her success started early in life. The only girl among the four children of Miriam and Charles Frank, immigrants from Russia, she grew up near Saltmarket where her father ran a camera and watch sales and repair shop. She received equal encouragement with her brothers in her studies.
When she showed an early aptitude for art, her father asked for advice from a neighbouring shopkeeper, the Scottish painter John Quinton Pringle. He said: “Art should be the icing on the cake, not the whole cake.”
So she studied English and Latin at Glasgow University from 1927-1930 while attending the famous Glasgow School of Art in the evenings for drawing, lithography and wood engraving. She won the James McBey prize for her wood engravings.
Her student poems and drawings were published in GUM, the university magazine, under the pen name of Al Aaraaf, the name of a brilliant but short-lived star used as the title of a poem by Edgar Allan Poe.
Hannah thought her career would, like the star, disappear after a brief flash. In fact, her first work dated was dated 1925 and her last 1994.
Her highly stylised line drawings for the magazine were perfect for reproduction —- elegant, elongated figures with long flowing hair, often against a dense black background. She was inspired by Art Nouveau, particularly the work of Aubrey Beardsley, as well as by the talented group of contemporary Glasgow women artists. In 1927 she won first prize in a JC competition for a black and white drawing.
With her degree and teaching certificate, she taught for several years, including at the Campbellfield School in Glasgow’s East End. She was active in Jewish circles, providing illustrations for organisations such as JNF and Habonim.
It was on a Jewish ramble in 1939 that she met her husband, maths and science teacher Lionel Levy. They enjoyed 63 years of marriage until his death in 2003.
In the early 1950s, she changed direction after taking sculpture classes at the School of Art, studying under the noted Jewish sculptor Benno Schotz. Her last line drawings are dated 1952.
After that she concentrated on sculpture, exhibiting at the Royal Glasgow Institute, Royal Scottish Academy and Royal Academy. A retrospective of her work was held in Glasgow in 1983.
The Levys, who belonged to Queen’s Park Synagogue, were active on the Glasgow committee of the Friends of the Hebrew University. Hannah contributed sculptures and drawings to its fundraising appeals.
When she and her husband moved to the Jewish community’s Westacre Care Home in 2002, she asked her niece, Fiona Frank, who worked at Lancaster University, to help place her works amongst family and friends. Fiona devised a five-year plan to promote her aunt’s work, taking advice from staff in the university gallery.
The result was a travelling exhibition, launched at Lancaster City Museum. After showings throughout Britain and the US from 2004-08, the exhibition culminated at Glasgow University on Hannah’s 100th birthday.Celebrations included a film on her life and work, and a reception at the Scottish Parliament, all organised by her niece. Glasgow University offered her an honorary degree for her “international distinction” but she died the day after its letter was sent.
Though she had no children, Hannah Frank enjoyed the company and friendship of her six nieces and nephews, including her “promoter”, Fiona.