Fashion  & Painting

From fashion and painting to the „ironically decadent” Miss P. series

Dresses paired up with their painted paraphrases, often accompanied by jewellery, make up Adele Frank’s twin pieces, in which the mirror effect is enhanced by the application of a unique 3D crumpled sewing technique. Painting and fashion design do not appear as distant genres in these twin works but much rather as complementary elements of an integral whole. The crumpled sewing paintings were first featured in her Starving Beauty series and the series Flags (the portraits of such iconic women as Queen Elizabeth II or Marilyn Monroe).

The designer participated in the Pret a Porter Paris Exhibition, where beside her collection, she also presented an extravagant oil-textile-inflatable sex-doll metal-paper sculpture installation called “Modern Venus I.” conveying political and social criticism.

Modern Venus III. The woman might be slightly familiar she is Botticelli’s Venus, now behind iron bars.

The starving Beauty series explores how the ideal of female beauty is distorted and manipulated by economic interests. In an age when the fulfilling experience of womanhood is replaced by fashion models dying on the catwalk and hundreds of thousands of women undergo excruciating and unnecessary cosmetic surgery in the name of ‘beauty’. Buttock enlargement, breast surgery, and liposuction – the target of the commercial profit making is the modern woman, who is pulled into a vortex of illusions of perfection.

Drag queen on the catwalk: Many of the designer’s fashion shows featured drag queens, since she felt this manifestation of extreme femininity is perfect for showcasing her clothing line.

The Geishabride concept: The designer made a self-portrait called “Geishabride” – a painting that manifests a latent paradox of femininity put on a pedestal (both being a geisha and a bride, pipedream of men)- for her fashion show in 2014.

In 2008, 2010, 2014 and 2021 Adele’s paintings were exhibited along with her collections.

Inspiration of the dresses:

Historical references, which may appear in the form of a unique Baroque or Gothic sleeve, an imitation of a Stuart collar, a small and dense Renaissance button pattern, or an Art Nouveau element. These details can be divided according to seasons; each era is represented in its pure form. However, they are focused in an eclectic way even within a single dress. The overall effect is always modern; the past is just a reference. For example in the London collection the bustle from the end of 19th century was combined with a modern twist and pull technique.

The designer’s favourite materials are silk, muslin, shantung, taffeta, leather, and for the more extravagant pieces she likes to use vetex mounted paper, canvas, metal, or even wood inserts. She doesn’t shy away from designing enamel buttons or silver and gold Yin-yang ones either.

Starving Beauty I.

130/90cm

Starving Beauty II.

120/80cm

Starving Beauty III.

130/90cm

Starving Beauty IV.

140/90cm

Starving Beauty V.

100/70cm

Starving Beauty VI.

100/70cm

A trapéz- Miss P. iszonyúan élvezi a Brexitet

160/60cm

A híd- Miss P. nagyszerűen érzi magát

60/60cm

Modern Vénusz II avagy Miss P. örömteli módon leleplezi a meztelen igazságot

150/120cm

Irony and humour subdued in the series of Miss P.

Miss P. frightfully enjoys the Brexit (The trapeze). The cadaver like white woman is hanging upside down from a trapeze with an unworldly smile on her face symbolizing the „country in trouble”. This gag meant to be an ironic imprint of the moment.

In the other pieces of the series we see how Miss P. cares about people (The marionette), and Miss P. having a great time (The bridge). The inspiration for Miss P. was Frank’s own 2007 Modern Venus II. painting, where a dead white woman is currently undergoing plastic surgery, while resting comfortably under a green medical blanket with an open belly, seemingly enjoying the process. For the 2007 original the artist used a medical fabric, like the ones used in Hospitals, to conceal the „procedure” halfway. At one of the Adele Frank fashion shows a ballerina in medical roll bandages gave a performance in front of the painting. The artist renamed the Modern Venus II to „Miss P. reveals the naked truth with pleasure” in 2022, adding it to the Miss P. series.

modern vénusz 2

Playing a chess game with God

100/100cm

Dress painting paraphrase

40/80cm

Drag Queen on the catwalk

Modern Venus

Modern Venus III.

120/200cm

Waving Desire

Flags I.

100/70cm

Flags II.

100/70cm

Self-portrait Geishabride

150/100cm

Self-portrait II.

80/60cm

Introducing Mary Bride

100/70cm

Introducing Mary Bride II.

120/80cm

Pleasant
calmness I.

100/70cm

Pleasant
calmness II.

100/70cm

Pleasant
calmness III.

100/70cm

Embrace I.

100/70cm

Embrace II.

2x 50/70cm

Embrace III.

100/70cm

Embrace IV.

4x 100/70cm

Short Cut

4x 30/20cm

New Age

100/70cm

Power is our Pride

150/100cm

Micro - Macro II.

40/50cm

Micro - Macro III.

100/70cm

Artistic Ars Poetica

Emotional Aesthetics – A new emotional dimension that searches for the balance between timeliness and timelessness.

The accelerated change of styles and trends is typical both in art and in fashion. A concept or an idea may take precedence in the work (Concept Art), or conversely we may claim that the art is primarily an aesthetic activity (New Aesthetics), but the cultural background always determines the interpretation of the work. When studying the techniques of construction and composition, interpretation and the relationships defining such them, painting as a solution and reflection of the questions posed by the age and culture  must get priority again. The language of art does not need to be adapted to the intense scientific progress which has inspired so many artists both in the past and in the present. The revved and exalted lifestyle further estranges people and uproots relationships. Excessive consumption that is manipulated by the interests of those in power diverts and engages people, and leads to significant environmental pollution, therefore speculating about whether a possible Armageddon will occur within a short or a longer period of time is merely an equivocation and insolence. The excessive amount of information with its small truths and spate deviation is just another tool for economic and ideological manipulation. Emotional aesthetics is a new emotional dimension that aims to search for the balance between timeliness and timelessness, the paradox of accelerated development and defects, the opposites encompassing existence, the all-embracing superficial freedom and deep-rooted insecurity, which have been observed over the last decade.
(Artist and fashion designer) Adele Frank had artistic debuts in London, Paris, Moscow and Budapest. She treats painting and design as equal, not as a remote branch of arts positioned in a strict hierarchy, therefore she often displays her clothing collections in an exhibition combined with her paintings and installations. Her debut was in London, at the Hungarian Embassy in Belgravia. In Paris, besides her collection, she also presented an extravagant oil-textile-inflatable metal-paper-rubber woman sculpture installation called “Modern Venus”. In her paintings female beauty is displayed as a product where the woman is understood as a destination where the product is predestined to be delivered, referring to the new aesthetic revolution and the results of industrialized plastic surgery. The emotional dimensions of the static and turbulent, yet sublime series entitled “Top Model – the Starving Beauty” incorporate a protest against the revved and superficial reality of our time, and on the other hand, they are also understood as mapping the sufferings of the manipulated and voiceless modern woman.
The direction of the approach can be a breakup with the manipulative trends, a journey to the inner self in order to return to the more natural states and tempo by rediscovering integrity and microenvironment. Furthermore, this separation and concealment may lead to a new poise of the individual, on the basis of which emotional harmony may be achieved. Some of her paintings are twin productions bridging the different periods of the artist, to which an article of clothing representing creative arts is also attached as a basis. A 3D crinkled seam application on some of the paintings further enhances this effect. Her collections reflect metropolitan elegance built on the traditions of artistic trends and deep professional knowledge, and her dresses filled with unlimited fantasy reflect the autonomy of the mature female experience of freedom. Her speciality is personal made-to-measure with a designer consultation, which ensures the exclusivity of revalorisation.

The designer was honoured the Victor Vasarely Art Award in 2014.
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