Cabinet of Curiosities: Ulla Frisch

Ulla Blau was born in Vienna in 1921. Her father was an engineer with a Jewish background, and her mother was from Hamburg. Ulla came to England as a refugee in 1938 aged 17 and lived mostly in Cambridge until her death, aged 98. She enjoyed a long and fulfilling creative life as a graphic designer and artist working in various media. Her works range from tiny wood engravings to much larger lino cuts, collages, drawings and paintings, and three-dimensional items. 

Her talent was recognised at an early age; she left school at the age of 14 to work in the graphic design studio of Julius Klinger in Vienna. Klinger was one of the leading poster designers in history, responsible for developing many of the principles of design still used today. Recognised as a trendsetting, forward-thinking innovator during his lifetime, Klinger sought to reconcile the applied arts with commerce and industry by reevaluating the role of the graphic artist in society. In a reference, he described Ulla, then only 17, as ‘an exceptionally gifted graphic artist, who produced special and individual work, in particular in the modern techniques of publicity graphics. The precision and accuracy of her work in the field of script are outstanding.’

In 1938, after Germany annexed Austria, Ulla left Vienna for the United Kingdom. She studied dressmaking at Kingston-upon-Thames School of Art and worked in a  toy-making workshop and in a wartime nursery in Cambridge. She also worked as an art teacher, as an assistant to architect Franz Singer and to photographer Lotte Meitner-Graf.

She married Otto Robert Frisch, a prominent physicist, in 1951. They settled in Cambridge and had a son and a daughter. Ulla continued working as a graphic designer, illustrating articles for Child Education, children's annuals and books. In 1963 she wrote and illustrated Fun to Make from Odds and Ends (London, Thomas Nelson & Sons), the first of three books on crafts for children. She taught art at a local school and to nursery nurses at Cambridge College of Arts.

After her husband died in 1979, Ulla had more time to devote to her art. She visited churches in East Anglia and further afield, sketching misericords, and attended courses, exploring and experimenting with different media, different techniques and continued to exhibit regularly with Cambridge Drawing Society and in various galleries until age started to constrain her activities. The subject of her work is often drawn from the scenes around her, including Cambridge markets, dancers and musicians: and animals depicted both in their natural habitat, and from sketches made at Linton Zoo.  

This Cabinet of Curiosities includes examples of Ulla’s prints, collages, sculptures and craft activities. The materials for the exhibition are kindly loaned to us by Monica Frisch, Ulla’s daughter, who lives in Cambridge.

'I knew when I was growing up, that my mother was an artist but it was only when my brother and I were sorting out her studio, after she had to move into a care home, that I fully appreciated just how versatile and prolific she had been. Whatever medium she used, from pencil or charcoal drawings through to technically very skilled wood engravings and her distinctive paper collages, she produced pleasing results. Much of her work features everyday scenes, other items are imaginative and quirky, sometimes revealing a gentle sense of humour; but it is always accessible, easy to live with and gives much pleasure'. - Monica Frisch