MASTERPIECES FROM THE BEN URI COLLECTION
EVA FRANKFURTHER (1930-1959) WEST INDIAN WAITRESSES
c. 1955 Oil on paper
EEVA FRANKFURTHER
va Frankfurther's painting West Indian Waitresses reflects her commitment to capturing the realities of everyday life among London's immigrant communities during the 1950s Rendered in muted earth tones with a restrained, expressive brushwork, the composition centers upon two waitresses depicted in a moment of qui-
et interaction, their presence dignified yet subtly melancholic Frankfurther employs a simplified palette and flattened perspective, concentrating attention on the psychological depth and nuanced expressions of the figures The women's faces convey a profound sense of fatigue and introspection, underscoring Frankfurther’s compassionate insight into their lived experiences. Avoiding sentimentality, the artist reveals her subjects' humanity through understated gestures and the tactile quality of her paint handling, reminiscent of influences such as Käthe Kollwitz and Picasso The viewer senses the intimacy born from Frankfurther’s own direct experience of working alongside immigrant populations in London's East End This empathetic portrayal challenges prevailing representations of immigrants at the time, offering instead an authentic glimpse into their emotional and social realities In doing so, West Indian Waitresses exemplifies Frankfurther's central artistic mission: to use art as a means of profound social commentary and to document the lives of overlooked and marginalized communities in postwar Britain.
Eva Frankfurther was born into a cultured, assimilated Jewish family in Berlin, Germany on 10 February 1930 Following the rise of National Socialism in Germany, she escaped to London with her siblings (her father and stepmother followed a few months later) in 1939 and the family settled in Belsize Park In the
early 1940s she was enrolled at South Hampstead Girls School, with her older sister, Beate, and both were evacuated to Berkhamsted during the Blitz After the war, she studied at St Martin's School of Art (1946-51), where her fellow students included Leon Kossoff and Frank Auerbach, who recalled Frankfurther's 'contempt for professional tricks or gloss' and her work as 'full of feeling for people' (cited M Bohm Duchen, in ed , B Planskoy, 'Eva Frankfurther 1930-59: Paintings, lithographs and drawings, London: Peter Halban, 2001) She exhibited alongside her contemporaries in the Seventh Exhibition of Paintings, Lithographs & Sculpture by Students of St Martin's School of Art at the Coffee House Gallery, Leicester Square (c. 1949-51).
Disaffected with the London art scene, after graduating, she moved to Whitechapel For the next six years, she earned her living working the evening shift as a counter-hand at Lyons Corner House and, later, in a sugar refinery, leaving herself free to paint during the day Inspired by artists as diverse as Rembrandt, Käthe Kollwitz and Picasso, she took as her subject the ethnically diverse, largely immigrant population among whom she lived and worked 'West Indian, Irish, Cypriot and Pakistani immigrants, English whom the Welfare State had passed by, these were the people amongst whom I lived and made some of my best friends', she observed. 'My colleagues and teachers were painters concerned with form and colour, while to me these were only means to an end, the understanding of and commenting on people ' Although she avoided the art establishment, she participated regularly in the East End Academy’s annual exhibitions at the Whitechapel Art Gallery (1952–57) and in Tercentenary Exhibition of Contemporary Anglo-Jewish Artists at Ben Uri Gallery in 1956 Between 1948 and 1958 she also travelled extensively in Europe and in her last year, spent eight months living and working in Israel She returned to London in October 1958; suffering from depression, she took her own life in January 1959
In 1962 a posthumous retrospective was held at Ben Uri Gallery in London, followed by further solo shows at Clare College, Cambridge (1979), Bedford Central Library (1980), Margaret Fisher Gallery (1981), and a memorial exhibition at the Boundary Gallery (2001), curated by her sister, Beate Planskoy, and Agi Katz She has been the focus of two further exhibitions at Ben Uri Gallery, ‘Refiguring the 50s: Joan Eardley, Sheila Fell, Eva Frankfurther, Josef Herman and L S Lowry’ (2013) and ‘Refugees: The Lives of Others’ (2017), launching a dedicated website to the artist Her work has also been included in numerous mixed exhibitions including ‘Kunst im Exil in Grossbritannien 1933-45’ (Berlin, 1986) and ‘Postwar Modern’ at the Barbican (2022). Eva Frankfurther’s work is in UK collections including the Ben Uri Collection, Clare College, Cambridge, and South Hampstead Girls School, as well as private collections in the UK and abroad
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
COLLECTION: https://benuri.org/collections/
BURU: https://www.buru.org.uk/
