Artist and illlustrator Natalie Frank and preeminent fairy tale scholar Jack Zipes discuss what their collaborative projects have taught them about the nature of storytelling and the complexity of fairy tales. Yeager Recital Hall, 7:30 p.m.
Jack Zipes is a retired University of Minnesota professor of German who has published widely on the history of fairy tales. Among his recent publications is the first English translation of the original stories of the Brothers Grimm. The recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, and a McKnight Research grant, Zipes currently serves on the advisory board of the Fairy Tale Review. He holds master’s and doctoral degrees in English and comparative literature from Columbia University.
One of the country’s foremost fairy tale scholars, Zipes uses Marxist interpretations of the western fairy tales canon to focus on instances of transformation and relationships to and of power within the tales. Zipes has also examined the ways in which the commodification of public domain fairy tales through film and television aimed at children commodifies childhood and children themselves.
Natalie Frank is an artist recognized for her expressive drawings and paintings, and best known for a 2014 project in which she illustrated the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm; that series was exhibited at the Drawing Center in New York and the Blanton Museum of Art in Texas. She is currently working on illustrations of fairy tales by Madame D’Aulnoy (French predecessor to Grimms) and has been commissioned to design sets and costumes for an upcoming production by Ballet Austin in Texas. Frank holds a bachelor’s degree in studio art from Yale University and an MFA in visual arts from Columbia University, School of the Arts.
Frank’s figurative painting and illustration is decidedly feminist, examining intersections of gender, sexuality, and identity and focusing moments of transformation and transfiguration. As an artist whose work deals frankly with sex and sexuality, she’s also written and been interviewed about sex, power, and sexual harassment in the art world, and recently created installation work calling out male critics for sexualizing young female artists.
Sponsored by Elon College, College of Arts and Sciences Funds For Excellence Grant; Art & Art History Department; The English Department; The Department of World Languages; The Philosophy Department; The Sociology & Anthropology Department; The Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program; EFFECT