Mary Frank facts for kids

Mary Frank (born Mary Lockspeiser on February 4, 1933) is a talented artist from both Britain and the United States. She creates many different types of art, including sculptures, paintings, prints, drawings, and illustrations.

Mary Frank's Life Story

Untitled (Prone Man, Two Trees) by Mary Frank

Mary Frank was born in London, England, on February 4, 1933. Her mother, Eleanore Lockspeiser, was an American painter. Her father, Edward Lockspeiser, was an English expert in music and art.

In 1939, when World War II began, Mary left London. She went to different boarding schools. In 1940, she moved to Brooklyn, New York, to live with her grandparents.

Early Artistic Training

From 1945 to 1950, Mary studied modern dance with the famous dancer Martha Graham. In 1947, she was accepted into the High School of Music & Art in New York. She later transferred to the Professional Children's School in 1949, where she focused on dance.

While in high school, she met Robert Frank, a photographer from Switzerland. They got married in 1950. Around this time, Mary also started studying art. She learned wood carving and took drawing classes with artists like Max Beckmann and Hans Hofmann.

Family Life and Artistic Beginnings

Mary and Robert Frank had two children: Pablo, born in 1951, and Andrea, born in 1953. In 1955, Robert Frank received a special award called a Guggenheim Fellowship. This allowed the family to travel across the United States for two years.

Mary Frank first showed her drawings in 1958 at a gallery in New York City. In 1969, she started working with the Zabriskie Gallery in New York. She was inspired by the sculptures of Margaret Ponce Israel and began creating art with clay. Also in 1969, Mary illustrated a children's book called Buddha.

Mary and Robert Frank divorced in 1969. Mary Frank later married Leo Treitler, a pianist and music scholar, in 1995. She currently lives and works in Lake Hill, New York, and New York City.

Awards and Recognition

Mary Frank has been an artist for over five decades. She mostly taught herself and did not have formal training as a sculptor. She has received many important awards for her art.

Some of her awards include:

• Two Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship Awards (in 1973 and 1983).
• The Lee Krasner Award from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation (1993).
• The Joan Mitchell Grant Award (1995).

In 1984, she was chosen to be part of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. She also became a full member of the National Academy of Design in 1994. Mary Frank also taught art at Bard College in New York, where she was honored as a Distinguished Professor.

Her artworks are displayed in many famous museums around the world. These include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Smithsonian Institution.

Mary Frank's Artworks

Mary Frank has created many different pieces of art. Here are some examples of her works:

• Persephone (a ceramic sculpture from 1989)
• Messenger (a bronze sculpture from 1991–92)
• What Color Lament? (a painting with collage from 1991–93)
• Knowing by Heart (a series of paintings with collage from 1997)
• This is the Remembering (a series of paintings from 1996–97)
• Migration (a series of paintings with collage from 1998–99)
• Where or When? (a series of paintings with collage from 1998–99)
• Ballad (a series of paintings with collage from 1997–99)
• Creature (an oil painting from 1999)

See also

• Inscape (visual art)