Erna Frank *
(Vienna 1942–2025)
Reclining Nude, sandstone, 1980s, height 26 cm
Provenance:
Private Collection, Vienna - acquired directly from the artist
Erna Frank was born in Vienna. She studied at the University of Applied Arts under Carl Unger and Eduard Bäumer.
Trained as a painter, she worked exclusively in three dimensions from the late 1970s before subsequently returning to painting and drawing.
Her sculptures pay homage to no ideal of beauty; rather, they are archetypes rendered in bronze and sandstone.
A striking feature of Frank’s sculpture is her engagement with the nude, predominantly the female body.
These are “weary, battered women, at the mercy of their own flesh, who’s rounded, swelling forms nevertheless radiate something akin to tenderness” (Hilde Schmölzer).
As in her two-dimensional imagery, the figures’ ample forms have a Baroque quality. Frank’s sculptural modelling reveals every gram of fat: ponderous and motionless, the figure looms before the viewer.
Semirah Heiligensetzer (Art historian), August 2026.
Specialist: Mag. Barbara Freisitzer
(Vienna 1942–2025)
Reclining Nude, sandstone, 1980s, height 26 cm
Provenance:
Private Collection, Vienna - acquired directly from the artist
Erna Frank was born in Vienna. She studied at the University of Applied Arts under Carl Unger and Eduard Bäumer.
Trained as a painter, she worked exclusively in three dimensions from the late 1970s before subsequently returning to painting and drawing.
Her sculptures pay homage to no ideal of beauty; rather, they are archetypes rendered in bronze and sandstone.
A striking feature of Frank’s sculpture is her engagement with the nude, predominantly the female body.
These are “weary, battered women, at the mercy of their own flesh, who’s rounded, swelling forms nevertheless radiate something akin to tenderness” (Hilde Schmölzer).
As in her two-dimensional imagery, the figures’ ample forms have a Baroque quality. Frank’s sculptural modelling reveals every gram of fat: ponderous and motionless, the figure looms before the viewer.
Semirah Heiligensetzer (Art historian), August 2026.
Specialist: Mag. Barbara Freisitzer
