Book, 14.9 x 20 cm, 236 p, language: English, translation from Hebrew, publisher: Berlin/Antwerpen : Sternberg Press/Extra City - Center for Contemporary Art (originally published by Babel Publishers, Tel Aviv, 2001), ISBN: 978-1-933128-66-5.
©M HKA
Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. B 2024/815).
Literary synopsis
Sweet Sweat, the only novel by Jewish-Belgian Surrealist and pornographer Justine Frank, is unusual, to say the least—a blend of feminism, pornography, Judaism, and art, written in French in 1931. Its heroine is a Jewish girl named Rachel, born in the South of France, who has an outstanding talent for debauchery and crime. She takes up with the sybaritic Count Urdukas and sets out with him on an odyssey of pleasure and corruption marked by bizarre events in which horror and humor mingle. This comprehensive new edition of Frank’s novel includes an extensive biography by Israeli American writer and artist Roee Rosen and a timeline tracing key moments in Frank’s life, providing a definitive analysis of this once-scandalous novel and its historical and cultural contexts. The third text in the book is a theoretical essay pursuing many of the aspects at play in her book and in her art.
Relation of the novel to the artist’s practice
The book can, of course, be read separately, but it is also a part of a project encompassing a variety of media (paintings, photographs, a video etc.). Sweet Sweat is an attempt to defy not only the divides between literature and art, but between the imagined and the real as well. In 2009, Extra City held an exhibition that contextualized a large selection of Frank's paintings by including the cinematic portrait Two Women and a Man (2005), directed by the artist and writer Roee Rosen.
Authorship: Fictional Author.
Creative Strategy: Fictional Artist Creates Artworks .
Genre: Biography, Erotic/Pornographic.
Publishing: Publishing House.
Theme: Art World, Perverse Sexuality, Violence.
>Cover 'Sweet Sweat', 2009
>Justine Frank, from 'The Stained Portfolio', 1927-1928
>Justine Frank, the Hebrew Alphabet, from The Stained Portfolio, 1927
>Justine Frank, the Hebrew Alphabet, from The Stained Portfolio, 1927
>Justine Frank, Utamaro and the Hysteric, gouache on paper, 1936
>Justine Frank, Frankomas, oil on canvas, 90X60cm, 1930; The Sisters Frankomas, oil on canvas, 90X120cm, 1931
>
> Justine Frank.
> Roee Rosen.
> Exhibition: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE ARTWORK BECOMES A NOVEL?. M HKA, Antwerp, 07 December 2012 - 21 April 2013.
> Exhibition: THE BOOK LOVERS - A Project about Artist Novels. The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York, 25 January 2013 - 09 March 2013.
> Exhibition: Book Lovers 4.0 (Pop-up Bookstore). De Appel Arts Centre, Amsterdam, 28 January 2014 - 02 February 2014.
> Exhibition: The Preparation of the Novel (Book Lovers 5.0). Fabra i Coats - Centre d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, 18 July 2014 - 05 September 2014.
> Ensemble: The Artist's Novel.