Viewpoint School

On March 20 and 21, Viewpoint welcomed acclaimed sculptor and filmmaker John Frame to our campus as a visiting artist-in-residence. Mr. Frame’s residency, organized by the Upper and Middle School arts faculty, involved two days of classroom visits with the sculpture, ceramics, photography, and film students. He generously shared different aspects of his extraordinary work, as well as thought-provoking insights from a long and successful career with each group. Mr. Frame’s visit culminated in a special presentation of his film Three Fragments of a Lost Tale, followed by a reception for parents, students, faculty, and staff.

Mr. Frame’s critically celebrated exhibition Three Fragments of a Lost Tale: Sculpture and Story by John Frame was recently presented at the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino. He is the only living artist to have had a solo exhibition at the Huntington. Mr. Frame explained to the audience that the inspiration for the show began with a dream. Waking one night with his head swimming in images and stories, he transcribed, during an eighteen-hour marathon session, the narrative that became the source material for his next six years of work. Creating mainly alone in his small studio in Wrightwood, California, Mr. Frame sculpted 35 beautifully articulated magical characters, multiple sets, and a working theatrical stage on which to bring his vision to life. Three Fragments of a Lost Tale is a twelve-and-a-half minute stop-motion animated film that presents a first look at his elegant fantasy world, populated by a menagerie of exquisite creatures. Click here to view this film.

David Pagel, writing for the Los Angeles Times, describes Mr. Frame’s work this way: “Frame’s figures throw open the doors of a world unlike any that has ever existed, yet strangely familiar. Contemporary viewers of his art find themselves in a position similar to that of these characters: awed, even daunted, by the strange, densely detailed world before us — which is nothing like the everyday reality we have left behind.”

Viewpoint was honored to host an artist of Mr. Frame’s stature. Three Fragments of a Lost Tale is currently on exhibition at the Portland Museum of Art, and his work is held by more than 300 public and private collections. These include the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Orange County Museum of Art, the Long Beach Museum of Art, the Palm Springs Desert Museum, The Renwick Gallery of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution, and the University of Southern California.

Click here to view Mr. Frame’s presentation on Viewpoint’s YouTube Channel.

Click here to see more of Mr. Frame’s extraordinary work.