Huntington Highlight: The Haunting World of John Frame

Last Friday, I had the privilege of attending a preview for the new John Frame exhibit, “Three Fragments of a Lost Tale.”  This fascinating show is unusual for many reasons, one being that it highlights the work of a living artist—quite rare for .

Frame, who has been developing his unique sculptural art for the past 30 years, was on hand at the preview to answer questions from journalists, but one topic Frame didn't, and wouldn't, discuss was the issue of interpreting the work. “When you ask, what does it mean, you’re already pushing it away,” he said, adding, “Meaning is always essentially non-linguistic for me.” 

The astonishing dream-like quality of the realm on view reflects and enforces the elusive nature of meaning. A cast of about three dozen distinct, handcarved characters populate three dark gallery rooms, lighted in such a way as to draw your attention only to the art.

Some figures are in glass cases, others in handcrafted displays and still others arranged under fine product lighting on a multi-layered stage. The figures toward the back of the stage are almost completely in shadow. The intricate sculptures have human and not-so-human features, wear handmade clothing and possess movable limbs, jaws and even (for some of them) eyelids.

"He's created an extraordinary range of human emotions," said Jessica Todd Smith, Virginia Steele Scott Chief Curator of American Art at The Huntington, who co-curated the exhibit with her colleague Kevin M. Murphy, Bradford and Christine Mishler Associate Curator of American Art.

Frame uses wood and found objects to create his figures. He is a fan of the online auction site eBay, through which he bought many of the parts he needed for this project, including 19th-century glass dolls'-eyes that give so many of his sculptures a disconcertingly lifelike appearance.

Photography and a stop-action film by Frame add yet another dimension to the exhibit, extending the rich textures of interpretive possibilities. Frame wrote the score for the film and an accompanying eight-minute documentary made by filmmaker Johnny Coffeen, in which Frame explains the basis for his art: “When I think about what creates the content of my work, I believe it’s my interest in the old questions: Where have I come from, what am I to do while I’m here, and what, if anything, happens when I’m gone? The fact that those questions are things that I take very seriously means that they are present in the work as the deepest form of content.”

These are not, of course, the kind of questions that make us feel nice and cozy at night. We generally turn away from them in search of more light-hearted distractions. Still, the questions remain, and in Frame’s work, seem to take on an odd, disjointed life of their own.

In an essay included in a beautifully designed, full-color book about the exhibit (edited by the curators), art critic and Claremont Graduate University professor David Pagel writes, “Frame’s empathetic figures stand in for a wide range of human feelings, desires, and aspirations. They draw profound sentiments out of anyone lucky enough to come across them in the right mood, which involves being comfortable with uncertainty and willing to figure things out for oneself.”

I agree with Pagel's remarks, with this caveat: I think if you go into this exhibit determined to figure it out, you may miss the point. The tale is not so much a puzzle to be solved as a world to be experienced. Frame’s answer to those who are eager to know what the work is about is recorded in the exhibition book: “The real answer should be that it isn’t about anything. That is not to say the work is meaningless, rather, that it carries its meaning in its own way and on its own terms."

As a companion exhibit to his own work, Frame curated a showing of works by the English artist-poet William Blake, who, along with Shakespeare, heavily influences Frame. Located on the second floor of the Huntington Art Gallery, “Born to Endless Night: Paintings, Drawings and Prints by William Blake Selected by John Frame” includes display labels written by Frame himself.

However, don’t look for any labels in "Three Fragments of a Lost Tale" because there aren’t any. The characters do have names, but I didn’t learn what any of them were until I looked through the exhibition book, after I'd already been through the gallery and watched the films. Frame said he insisted on not having the labels because he did not want anything to distract visitors from simply seeing the work—an idea that I wholeheartedly appreciated. Without the labels, you are left to find your own way and draw your own conclusions about what you see between the light and the shadows. My only advice for the journey: don’t hurry, and don’t turn away.

“Three Fragments of a Lost Tale” (MaryLou and George Boone Gallery) and “Born to Endless Night: Paintings, Drawings and Prints by William Blake Selected by John Frame” (Huntington Art Gallery, second floor) are on view now and will run through June 20. The accompanying exhibition book, which includes more details about the Cast of Characters, was edited by curators Kevin M. Murphy and Jessica Todd Smith and is available at The Huntington’s Bookstore & More for $24.95. For more information, check out The Huntington’s blog.