Graphic artist, sculptor and poet Hannah Frank was born to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents in Glasgow, Scotland in 1908. From 1927-30 she studied Latin and moral philosophy at the University of Glasgow, also attending evening classes at the Glasgow School of Art, and later briefly studying printmaking and wood engraving. She produced her trademark black-and-white drawings from the age of seventeen and between 1927-32 the GUM (Glasgow University Magazine) rarely appeared without one of her drawings, signed 'Al Aaraaf', her chosen pen name (taken from Edgar Allen Poe). In the 1950s she took up sculpture, studying with Benno Schotz, and both her drawings and sculpture were exhibited in the Royal Glasgow Institute, the Royal Academy, and the Royal Scottish Academy, throughout her long career. She continued to produce sculpture until her early nineties, examples of which have been exhibited at the Scottish Parliament.
In 2002, aged 94, she moved with her husband, Lionel Levy, to a care home in Glasgow, where her drawings and sculpture were also on show. A centenary exhibition in 2008 toured to various venues in the UK and USA before opening at Glasgow University Chapel, where a film about her life and work, Hannah Frank: The Spark Divine, was premiered. She died in Glasgow, Scotland in 2008. In 2015–2016 her work was included posthumously in the exhibition 'Modern Scottish Women: Painters and Sculptors 1885–1965' at the National Galleries of Scotland. Her work is in UK collections including the Ben Uri Collection, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow Women's Library, Maclaurin Art Gallery at Rozelle House, South Ayrshire and the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre. Her diaries and letters are housed at the Scottish Jewish Archives at Garnethill Synagogue, catalogued as the HFLLC – Hannah Frank and Lionel Levy collection.
