https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/02/nyregion/02artsli.html

A Medieval Skill Is Nurtured in Gold-Leaf Splendor

Dec. 31, 2010

Art Review | Long Island

PEACE, ILLUMINATED Ellen Frank with “Jerusalem: A Painting Toward Peace,” a work in the Guild Hall exhibition.Doug Kuntz for The New York Times

East Hampton, N.Y.

ILLUMINATED manuscripts, with their gold-leaf decoration, are commonly viewed as an antiquated if dazzling form of art, associated with medieval monks or other anonymous scribes. But in Ellen Frank’s studio here, a group of young interns was working recently under her direction to apply the rarefied methods of illumination to a 21st-century vision.

The four interns — none older than 30 — were the latest crop of apprentices at Ms. Frank’s Illumination Atelier, modeled on the artists’ ateliers of the Renaissance. “I’m the master artist. I oversee it, and I’m the designer,” said Ms. Frank, as she wandered, part director and part mother hen, among the interns.

Ms. Frank’s interns include Masa Zmitek.Doug Kuntz for The New York Times

Though created under her supervision, the paintings and prints produced by the Illumination Atelier reflect a collaborative spirit, she said: “The interns participate in research, concept development, design and execution.”

Some of their output may currently be seen at Guild Hall, a few miles from the studio. On view through Jan. 16, the exhibition “Cities of Peace” features nine monumental paintings that use gold illumination — along with such elements as calligraphy, poetry, archival photographs and urban plans and maps — to commemorate cities around the world that have experienced conflict and trauma. Jerusalem, Baghdad, Kabul, Beijing, Hiroshima, Lhasa, Monrovia (the capital of Liberia), Sarajevo and post-9/11 New York are each the subject of a shimmering 6-by-8 ½-foot work.

Julia Plekhanova, intern.Doug Kuntz for The New York Times

The aim of “Cities of Peace” is “to transform anguish into beauty,” said Ms. Frank, whose project was inspired by a visit to Jerusalem in 1999. “The air was filled with tension, which I didn’t understand,” she recalled. “When I came back to the States, the second intifada broke out. I had been feeling the build-up.”

The experience inspired the artist, who was already familiar with manuscript illumination, to produce the large-scale “Jerusalem: A Painting Toward Peace,” which includes four types of 22-karat gold leaf on Belgian linen.

Jurij Puc, intern.Doug Kuntz for The New York Times

She completed the piece in 2004. Designing an invitation for a celebration party, she had what she calls “a moment of grace,” when she realized she wanted to continue exploring the themes of peace and cultural understanding through illuminated works. On the invitation, “I literally wrote, ‘The First Painting,’ ” she said.

Drawn to both words and images, Ms. Frank holds an interdisciplinary doctorate in English literature and the visual arts from Stanford University. The same year that she finished “Jerusalem,” she founded the nonprofit Ellen Frank Illumination Arts Foundation, which helps provide financial support and housing for Illumination Atelier interns. Since 2005, when Ms. Frank sought her first interns on Craigslist, successive groups of apprentices from some 15 countries have contributed to the eight “Cities of Peace” paintings that followed “Jerusalem.” The project is continuing, with more cities planned for the series.

“Baghdad: City Of Peace, Truly,” by Ellen Frank.Doug Kuntz for The New York Times

Despite their genesis in violent events — among them, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the 1989 protests at Tiananmen Square in Beijing and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — the paintings are “not frenetic and they’re not harrowing,” said Peter Trippi, the editor of Fine Art Connoisseur magazine, who took part in a Guild Hall panel discussion on the exhibition last fall. “There’s a sense of serenity or contemplation in these pictures,” he said.

Serenity prevailed, too, on that recent day at the atelier.

“I can’t say this is work; this is really pleasant,” said Julia Plekhanova, 24, who had recently arrived from Voronezh, Russia, and was spending her first day at the studio. Ms. Plekhanova was applying a silver-toned “moon gold” to a tracery of mountains on a print image of Kabul, derived from a 19th-century photograph of the Afghan capital; eventually, the illuminated Kabul will become part of a limited-edition boxed “Cities of Peace Treasure Suite” of prints.

Emily Deutchman, 24, of New York City, said she was getting “a crash course in leafing” as she worked on a print of Beijing, based on a Ming dynasty city plan.

Two returning interns, Masa Zmitek, 25, and Jurij Puc, 30, both of Ljubljana, Slovenia, had previously studied in the atelier with Ms. Frank for four months starting in October 2009. Ms. Zmitek was working on vellum (calfskin) for another continuing Illumination Atelier project, about Hanukkah. As part of the process, she was using glue made in the studio from garlic. “That is common since medieval times,” she said, adding, “Better for vellum.”

Mr. Puc, who described himself as a “dip kid”— a child of diplomats — sat at a computer, looking at a vintage map of Beirut, Lebanon, the next subject of “Cities of Peace.” The project’s emphasis on cultural understanding especially appealed to him. “In a way,” he said, “this is the continuation of my father’s diplomat work.”