Natalie Frank is an interdisciplinary artist whose drawings, paintings, books, and performance design focus on narrative, feminist portraiture. Publications: Tales of E.T.A. Hoffmann; Poe; Tales of Madame d’Aulnoy; O; The Brothers Grimm. Gloria Steinem said: “giving us back the women heroines of the oldest stories, Natalie Frank is giving back...the right to tell our own stories.” Frank was artistic director of Grimm Tales, Ballet Austin, Texas, 2019. Her survey, Unbound, opened at the Kemper Museum, OH, in 2021. She made drawings for Apple’s, The Crowded Room and Netflix’s Evil. She co-designed Liz Phair’s nationwide tour. She is a Fulbright Scholar; BA, Yale University; MFA, Columbia University. @nataliegwenfrank
Where were you born and raised, and how did your upbringing shape your artistic identity? I was born in Austin, Texas, and raised in Dallas, Texas. Amidst a landscape of conservative conformity, and labelled a pornographer at an early age because I started nude figure drawing when I was 12, I knew that I wanted to locate the subject matter of my work in feminist portraiture.
Was there a specific time or moment you realized you wanted to be an artist? I knew I wanted to be an artist at the age of 12. The feeling of drawing the figure, in real time, and using the body to tell stories was exhilarating. The arts tell us who we are.
Tell us about your typical day in the studio and your most familiar materials. I am in the studio 10am to 6pm. I am usually painting or drawing on a single piece. Usually, I am working in series, so I use either oil paint on canvas or gouache and chalk pastel on paper.
What projects are you working on at the moment? And what themes or ideas are currently driving your work? I am working on a few upcoming museum shows, one that unites all the material that I work in: painting, drawing, paper pulp painting, performance design, and ceramics. I look to literature often as a subject matter, reviving women's tales and feminist stories. I am also working towards a big digital project rooted in drawing, in tandem with a team of video designers, editors, and a dancer.
What do you hope people feel when they experience your art? What are you trying to express? I want people to experience sensations that feel real. Real people, real situations, colors and patterns, and brushwork that evoke real space and light.
Are there any artists whose work you feel a deep kinship with, even if you’ve never met? Michael Armitage. Cy Twombly. Van Gogh and Degas. Emil Nolde and Edvard Munch. Of course, Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, and Veronese.
Does your practice intersect with other art forms or disciplines? I draw inspiration from every part of the world around me. Especially dance and opera. Opera evokes extreme synesthesia in me. As does literature. Travel and seeing various parts of the world inform the narratives and people that I have access to.
How have the vibrant cultural scenes of New York shaped your work? New York: it doesn't get better. Culture, restaurants, everyone, everywhere, all at once. Everything feels possible here. Especially as I have moved into working in a variety of media, I have appreciated being able to reach out to people I admire and make things in other fields in order to have conversations and meet other artists.
Can you share a time when a project tested your limits—and how you worked through it? Any time that I work in a new medium, it is a tremendous challenge. New materials, new teams, new forms and venues. Working on Grimm Tales Ballet, my first designed performance, based on my first book, was incredibly challenging. I worked with a team to co-design costumes, sets, animations, and headpieces. As well as lighting. I knew nothing about any of these disciplines, and learned so much! And was able to collaborate with brilliant artists who taught me so much.
Tell us about important teachers/mentors/collaborators in your life. Paula Rego and Linda Nochlin were two formative mentors and great friends. Their wisdom, brilliance, and fortitude were models for the ways in which women can be extraordinary, grounded in their time, and true visionaries. Both women were warm, loving friends and women, sharing their own art, writing, struggles, and insight.
How does being in nature inspire your art or your process? I grew up going to my mom's cattle ranch in East Texas. Growing up with cows, horses, grass, and fishing, seeing the natural cycle of life and death, being in the natural world continually reminds me of the fragility of our lives and bodies.
AI is rapidly changing how we understand human creativity. What is the importance of handmade artworks in an age of industrialized creativity? I am so invested in the handmade and have yet to see AI infringe on the quality of what art can be. I see it being a potentially destructive force in film, yet also generative in so many other areas.
Exploring ideas, art and the creative process connects me to… All of the people who have come before.
