Fran Herndon

Fran Herndon (c. 1926 – May 24, 2020) was an American artist associated with the central poets of the San Francisco Renaissance. Trained at the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute) in print-making and painting, Herndon is known for her lithographs and collages, many of which were produced in tandem with Jack Spicer's poetry, and intended for joint viewing and reading.^[1] More recently, Herndon has branched out to work in drawing and pastels.^[2][3]

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.^[4] More recently, Herndon has had three solo shows in 2011 at Altman Siegel Gallery, Canessa Park Gallery, and The Apartment.^[5] 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.^[6] For most of her career, Herndon had no dealer and rarely sold her work, and her reputation was therefore greatest amongst fellow artists and poets. 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 "[d]ocumentation was unheard of."^[7] From 2011 she was represented by the Altman Siegel Art Gallery.^[8][3]