Fran Herndon ( – May 24, 2020) was an American artist associated with the central poets of the

San Francisco Renaissance The term San Francisco Renaissance is used as a global designation for a range of poetic activity centered on San Francisco, which brought it to prominence as a hub of the American poetry avant-garde in the 1950s. However, others (e.g., Alan Watt ...

. Trained at the

California School of Fine Arts San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...

(now the

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a Private college, private art school, college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mis ...

) in print-making and

painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

, Herndon is known for her

lithographs Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the miscibility, immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by ...

and

collages Collage (, from the , "to glue" or "to stick together") is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assembly of different forms, thus creating a new whole. (Compare with pasti ...

, many of which were produced in tandem with Jack Spicer's poetry, and intended for joint viewing and reading. More recently, Herndon has branched out to work in

drawing Drawing is a Visual arts, visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to make a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, some ...

and

pastel A pastel () is an art medium that consists of powdered pigment and a binder (material), binder. It can exist in a variety of forms, including a stick, a square, a pebble, and a pan of color, among other forms. The pigments used in pastels are ...

s. Herndon's work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions dating back to at least 1963, during which Herndon's "Grail Series" works were a part of the group exhibit, ''Exhibit''. More recently, Herndon has had three solo shows in 2011 at Altman Siegel Gallery, Canessa Park Gallery, and The Apartment. In 2010, her work was part of the group exhibition, ''Breathless Days 1959-1960: A Chronotropic Experiment'', at the

Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Vancouver, British Columbia, on the campus of the University of British Columbia. The gallery is housed in a building designed by architect Peter Cardew which opened in 1995 ...

. For most of her career, Herndon had no dealer and rarely sold her work, and her reputation was therefore greatest amongst fellow

artists An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

and

poets A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

. Her silence is typical of the artistic circles she ran in: San Francisco being far off the art map, San Francisco artists indulged in a kind of "nihilism," rarely "took any precautions to preserve their work," and " cumentation was unheard of." From 2011 she was represented by the Altman Siegel Art Gallery.

Early life and work

Born in

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

and of Native American ancestry, Herndon lived for a time in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, where she met her then-husband Jim Herndon. The Herndons settled in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, where they had two children: Jay Herndon (1957-) and Jack Herndon (1960-). It was in San Francisco that she met the central poets associated with the

Jack Spicer Jack Spicer (January 30, 1925 – August 17, 1965) was an American poet often identified with the San Francisco Renaissance. In 2009, ''My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer'' won the American Book Award for poetry. ...

Robin Blaser Robin Francis Blaser (May 18, 1925 – May 7, 2009) was an American-born Canadian playwright, poet, and translator. Personal background Born in Denver, Colorado, Blaser grew up in Idaho, and came to Berkeley, California, in 1944. There he met Ja ...

, Robert Duncan, and

Jess Jess is a unisex given name, often a short form (hypocorism) of Jessica, Jesse, Jessie, Jessy, Jesswin and a surname. It may refer to: Given name * Jess Atkinson (born 1961), American football player * Jess Cain (1926–2008), American radi ...

. More specifically, they were the poets of the Berkeley Renaissance, which was later "absorbed into a broader aesthetic, geographical, and temporal movement called the

", alongside the clashing

Beat Beat, beats, or beating may refer to: Common uses * Assault, inflicting physical harm or unwanted physical contact * Battery (crime), a criminal offense involving unlawful physical contact * Battery (tort), a civil wrong in common law of inte ...

aesthetics of

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of th ...

Gary Snyder Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His early poetry has been associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance and he has been described as the "poet laureate ...

, and

Philip Whalen Philip Glenn Whalen (October 20, 1923 – June 26, 2002) was an American poet, Zen Buddhist, and a key figure in the San Francisco Renaissance and close to the Beat generation. Biography Born in Portland, Oregon, Whalen grew up in The Dalles f ...

. Her tutelage under and collaborations with

, in particular, resulted in various

created in tandem with Spicer's

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

. His verse "allowed the poetry he wrote while working with Herndon to grow flat, more literal, incantatory, till it approaches the emotionally numb."

Artistic practices

Alongside fellow artists such as

Helen Adam Helen Adam (December 2, 1909 in Glasgow, Scotland – September 19, 1993 in New York City) was a Scottish poet, collagist and photographer who was part of a literary movement contemporaneous to the Beat Generation that occurred in San Francisco d ...

Paul Alexander (American artist) Paul R. Alexander (September 3, 1937 – June 14, 2021) was an American commercial artist and illustrator.Jess Jess is a unisex given name, often a short form (hypocorism) of Jessica, Jesse, Jessie, Jessy, Jesswin and a surname. It may refer to: Given name * Jess Atkinson (born 1961), American football player * Jess Cain (1926–2008), American radi ...

and

Tom Field Thomas Geoffrey Field (born 14 March 1997) is a professional footballer who plays as a left back for Canadian Premier League club Cavalry FC. A product of the Brentford Academy, Field graduated into the senior team in 2016. A fringe player, he ...

, Herndon contributed to the development of a socially engaged school of art in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

that "challenged the values of the East Coast School of

Abstract Expressionism Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depressi ...

." The visual and literary arts were crucial to creating local, West Coast and

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. The Association of Bay Area Governments ...

variants of

modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

. Her work has been described as one of "quiet xtremism and linked, in that way, to other West Coast artists connected to the

such as Harry Jacobus, Jess Collins, Paul Alexander, and Tom Field. An example of Herndon's early work is her series of

made in 1963 based on ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

.'' These collages were later published as a part of Jim Herndon's memoirs of the collaboration between Herndon and

, ''Everything as Expected''. Herndon continues to be invested in the convergence of the written and visual arts: her prints continue to be best viewed with "their intended volume of poetry" and her collages often make use of "clipped text swirling about in a manner somewhere between that of

Richard F. Outcault Richard Felton Outcault (; January 14, 1863 – September 25, 1928) was an American cartoonist. He was the creator of the series ''The Yellow Kid'' and ''Buster Brown'' and is considered a key pioneer of the modern comic strip. Life and career ...

's Yellow Kid comics and Richard Hamilton's similar collages." Spicer impressed upon Herndon his own poetic strategies of "applying practical magic and using

allegory As a List of narrative techniques, literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a wikt:narrative, narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political signi ...

to express the existential conflict and social upheaval that was central to the artistic ground swell of the Beat movement" which she, in turn, absorbed and put to use in her own practices of

and

printmaking Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proces ...

. As her artistic practice matured, Fran Herndon became Spicer's closest collaborator. In an interview with Lewis Ellingham, she said that "He picersaw in me something greater than ''I'' saw in myself – I think." Writing for SFMOMA's OpenSpace project, Norma Cole stated that "Jack would come over to Fran and Jim Herndon's place in the evening and read the new poems to them. During the day Fran would walk up to the

and create the beautiful, mysterious

that would be in the book with the

poems Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

." The close relationships between Herndon's practice and poetic practices, and between Herndon the artist and the many poets who at one point or another drew upon ideas coming out of the San Francisco Renaissance is apparent. At Herndon's 2012 solo exhibition at Vancouver's Blanket Gallery, for example, curator Lee Plested organised a special poetry reading including

Meredith Quartermain Meredith Quartermain, née Yearsley (born October 1, 1950) is a Canadian poet, novelist and story writer who lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Life Quartermain was born in Toronto, Ontario and lived in a variety of locations in chi ...

, Gary Thomas Morse,

's partner, David Farwell, and

George Stanley Colonel George Francis Gillman Stanley (July 6, 1907September 13, 2002) was a Canadian author, soldier, historian at Mount Allison University, public servant, and designer of the Canadian Flag. Early life and education George F. G. Stanley was ...

, whose 2003 poetry collection, "A Tall, Serious Girl" features Herndon's painting, "Eye on the Sea." Her works continue to be curated and shown by poets such as Kevin Killian, just as she began her career by "showing at the experimental "poets' galleries" of the period (the Peacock Gallery, Buzz)."

Editorial work

In 1959, Herndon served as the art editor of the poetry/art magazine ''J'', often credited as the first journal of the "

mimeo revolution The Mimeo Revolution (or Mimeograph Revolution) of the 1960s and 1970s was an active period of small-scale, non-commercial, literary publishing facilitated by the accessibility of the mimeograph. It is distinguished from the traditional private pre ...

and the harbinger of hundreds of successors in the 60s and 70s." The magazine was produced by Spicer via

mimeograph A mimeograph machine (often abbreviated to mimeo, sometimes called a stencil duplicator or stencil machine) is a low-cost duplicating machine that works by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper. The process is called mimeography, and a co ...

in San Francisco. Herndon's contribution to the magazine was crucial: its "playful, even colorful, formal character thanks to Fran Herndon, who edited the artwork for the magazine" in combination with an "uncompromising editorial stance" led to ''Js establishment as a "representative of the best of the mimeograph revolution." Together, Spicer and Herndon edited the first five issues of the magazine. ''J'' was named after the Herndons' first son, Jay.

Death

Fran Herndon died on May 24, 2020, at the age of 94.

Solo exhibitions

*Blanket Contemporary Art,

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

. (2012). Curated by Kevin Killian Guest curated by Lee Plested *Canessa Park Gallery,

. (2011) *Altman Siegel Gallery, San Francisco, California. (September–October 2011) Curated by Kevin Killian and Lee Plested *The Apartment,

. (2011) *Canessa Park Gallery,

. (2009) *Canessa Park Gallery,

. (2005) *Buzz Gallery,

. (1965) Curated by Paul Alexander, Bill Brodecky, Larry Fagin

Group exhibitions

*''Breathless Days 1959-1960: A Chronotropic Experiment'',

. (April - June 2010) *''Other People's Projects: Dodie Bellamy and Kevin Killian'', White Columns,

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. (2006) *''Five Habitats: Squatting at Langton, Week One,''

New Langton Arts New Langton Arts (active 1975 – 2009) was a not-for-profit arts organization focusing on contemporary art founded in 1975 and located the South of Market neighborhood in San Francisco, California. Part of the first wave of alternative art spaces ...

. (2006) *''Many Happy Returns,'
High Energy Constructs

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. (2006) Organized by Michael Smoler. *''Poetry and its Arts: Bay Area Interactions 1954-2004'',

California Historical Society The California Historical Society (CHS) was the official historical society of California, until it dissolved and transferred its collections to the Stanford University Libraries in an agreement that was announced in January 2025. Founded in 1871 ...

. (December 2004-April 2005) *''In Search of Orpheus: Some Bay Area Poets & Painters 1945-65'', Charles H. Scott Gallery,

. (1995) *''Jack Spicer Symposium and White Rabbit Conference,'' Intersection for the Arts,

. (1986) *Peacock Gallery,

. (October–November 1963) Curated by

Collections

*''Death of Kid Paret'', 1963,

*"Jack Spicer on the Beach", 1962,

*"Portrait of Robin Blaser", 1963,

Catalogues

*Benzan, Carla, Allison Collins, Shaun Dacey, Aldona Dziedziejko, Darrin Martens, Sarah Todd, and Scott Watson. ''Breathless Days: 1959-1960''. *Alexander, Paul, Lyn Brockway, Ralph T. Field, Fran Herndon, Harry Jacobus, and Jess. ''Exhibition''. Peacock Gallery, 1963.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Herndon, Fran 1920s births Year of birth uncertain 2020 deaths American women artists Artists from North Carolina San Francisco Art Institute alumni Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area 21st-century American women