MARY FRANK (1933) Original Bison Endangered Species Monotype Signed Framed

1933 hand colored monotype on paper, 18" x 21", frame size 22" x 26", pencil signed lower right. A long-time environmental activist, her rendering of the iconic bison is a testament to her own creative genius and empathy for the natural world. Done in varying shades of green and brown and bordering on realism and the surreal, this artwork would be at home in any décor! Excellent original condition with no issues. Please see photos for best description! Mary Frank was born in London in 1933 and moved to the United States at the age of seven. Her artistic ability began while growing up in the epicenter of New York City's East Village art world during the 50s and 60s with her mother who was also an artist. Her earliest artwork was sculpture. She practiced wood carving in the 1950s with local woodworker Alfred Van Loen and painting and sculpture with Hans Hoffman and Max Beckmann. She eventually became more interested in clay because of its fluidity and versatility and continued working with clay for decades although her focus and inspirations changed periodically. Over the course of Frank's career, she has worked in many mediums and materials, most notably with her monoprints, drawings, sculpture, painting and photography. In the late sixties she accidentally discovered her love for monotypes.

While teaching at The New School, she dropped a glass painting she was working on but luckily was able to keep the artwork by pressing a piece of paper onto the painting, transferring the work. Monotypes are essentially printmaking except they are improvisational and no two are ever alike. Mary Frank has been the subject of numerous solo museum and gallery exhibitions over the years. Public Collections: The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, Whitney Museum of American Art, The Brooklyn Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, The Morgan Library and Museum, New York, NY, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA.

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