Name Frances Blane | ||
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Frances Aviva Blane (born Frances Aviva Sternberg September 1954 in Hampstead, London) is an English abstract painter who works in the Expressionist tradition. Her subject matter is the disintegration of paint and personality. Blane also draws. However, whereas her paintings are mainly non-referential, the drawings are often of heads, although, as in her paintings, the “heads” are deconstructed which echo her words “broken-up paint, broken-up heads”. In 2014, her drawings were shown in an exhibition entitled Deconstruct at De Queeste Kunstkamers, Belgium alongside shows of work by Louise Bourgeois and Francis Bacon. She has exhibited internationally in the UK, Europe, Australia and Japan.
Contents
- Education
- Gallery
- Book
- Exhibitions
- Selected solo shows
- Selected group shows
- Awards
- Residency
- Collections
- References
“They are desperate paintings, fetching isolated and sombre emotion from the deep recesses – they are ‘primeval, before language, dredged from the back of your mind’. They are Beckett-like landscapes and express something like anxiety, unease, restlessness, all tinged with melancholy or plain sadness.”
Dr Edward Winters, West Dean College, 2005, from the introduction in the catalogue for Frances Aviva Blane’s show, Prime Time: Painting, Frances Aviva Blane – paintings & drawings 2006 at Galerie Seitz & Partner, Berlin, January – February 2006
“Blane’s drawings are not for the faint-hearted. They are very demanding and what they demand is attention. Blane seeks to find the least number of marks that will carry the emotional energy she pours into every work. Such loaded distillations require input and work on the part of the viewer as well. They incite a response. ‘I want to make a mark that no has ever seen before.’ And so she does.”
Doris Lockhart Saatchi, London, 2005, from the introduction in the catalogue for Frances Aviva Blane’s show, Prime Time: Painting, Frances Aviva Blane: paintings & drawings 2006 at Galerie Seitz & Partner, Berlin, January – February 2006
Blane is the daughter of the late Sir Sigmund Sternberg.
Education
Blane studied at Chelsea School of Art (1988), Byam Shaw School of Painting and Drawing (1991) and the Slade School of Fine Art, London (1993).
Gallery
Blane is represented in Belgium by De Queeste Art Gallery.
Book
NOTHING by Frances Aviva Blane, a book of paintings and works on paper with a catalogue essay by Diana Souhami was published by Starmount Publications in 2015. EMBASSY a book of paintings and drawings chronicling Blane’s exhibition at the German Embassy London with introduction by Tess Jaray RA was published in 2017.
Exhibitions
Blane’s first show in London was curated by Andrew Mummery, a British gallerist. She is also an award-winner of the Jerwood Drawing Prize (1999) and took part in their exhibition Drawing Breath, an anniversary show.
Blane has been included in many group shows including Chora (London and touring the UK) curated by art critic Sue Hubbard and Women’s Contemporary Self Portraits at the Usher Gallery (Lincoln and touring). Blane also showed at the Annely Juda Gallery in the exhibition Annely Juda – A Celebration. She has had two-handed exhibitions with Basil Beattie and John Mclean, both prominent British abstract painters.
She was sponsored by the British Council and the Goethe Institut to take part in a painting swap with German artists. She has also exhibited at The Architectural Biennale in Clerkenwell in 2004 and at Our Most Holy Redeemer Church in Exmouth Market.
Selected solo shows
Selected group shows
Awards
Residency
Blane had a residency in 1998 at the Djerassi resident Art Programme in California founded by Carl Djerassi.
Collections
Her work is in many collections including Jesus College Cambridge, LSE, Moorfields Eye Hospital, The Sternberg Centre, The Usher Gallery, Lincoln, the Tim Sayer Collection London, the Doris Jean Lockhart Collection and Three Faiths Forum London.