Ellen Frank
Illumination Arts Foundation InC.
The Flomenhaft Gallery is proudly now representing the work of the Ellen Frank Illumination Arts Foundation, Inc.
In 2004, Dr. Frank created the non-profit, Ellen Frank Illumination Arts Foundation, Inc. (EFIAF), a 501 (C) (3) public benefit organization that enables the revitalization of the art of illumination and creation of new works of art in this genre. EFIAF revives and gives life to an artistic form that might otherwise be lost or fall into disuse. In so doing, it renews and celebrates a tradition of vibrant aesthetic and inspirational power. With Ellen Frank as the master teacher, EFIAF brings together an international cadre of interns, artists, curators, media experts, universities, municipalities and cultural organizations to work on its projects. This positive intercultural dialogue, bridging gaps in religion, ethnicity and aesthetic ideas, testifies to the transformative power of the collaborative artistic enterprise to bring forth social change.
In all cultures art has realized universal yearnings for beauty, awe and creative expression. The mystery of how this impulse is sustained against the odds imposed by humanity’s destructive impulse is insoluble, but clearly art is the mainstay of civilized tendencies. The work of Ellen Frank Illumination Arts Foundation insists upon the centrality of aesthetic activity in human experience and its transformative impact on humanity.
For many centuries, societies far apart in culture and religion, sometimes at war with each other, have had in common an exquisite art form: the illumination, with pictures, paint and precious metals of their most sacred documents. In archives and museums, a decorated Hebrew marriage contract (or katubah), an embellished New Testament manuscript, a dazzling Koran, bespeak the reverence and intensity of feeling expressed through that fine art.
Today what is called “reverence” is often expressed in violence rather than art, and illumination -- labor intensive and reliant on rare materials -- has few practitioners. Artist and scholar Ellen Frank has explored the application and adaptation of illumination techniques and metaphors from various canons to contemporary manuscripts and large paintings. Her work has attracted wide interest among museums and cultural institutions, fine art publishers and collectors.
About the Artistic Director: Ellen Frank’s accomplishments as an artist, writer, and scholar are evident in her illuminated works. Her many awards in painting, book design, and scholarship include a Fulbright Fellowship, a Ford Foundation fellowship, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Her work has been commissioned by numerous corporations and appears in corporate and public collections in the United States and abroad, including the Takashimaya Corporation in Japan. Solo and group exhibitions at galleries and museums, including "T" at the Guggenheim Museum in Soho, have also featured her work. Among the many honors bestowed upon her book, Literary Architecture: Essays Toward a Tradition, are awards from the American Association of University Presses, the American Institute of Graphic Arts, and other prestigious organizations. A gifted teacher, she studied art history and connoisseurship at Yale University and holds an interdisciplinary doctorate in English literature and the visual arts from Stanford University. Most recently, Ellen became an Associate of the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research – the first artist to receive this honor.
CITIES OF PEACE, a suite of nine monumental, 6 x 8 foot gold-illuminated paintings honoring the history and culture of cities that have suffered major trauma and strife, as well as the CITIES OF PEACE Treasure Suite, a portfolio box of 9 hand-illuminated prints based on the paintings, are now available at the Flomenhaft Gallery.
