Art Review: Sculptor Elisabeth Frink

 

Born in Suffolk in 1930, Elisabeth Frink was a sculptor and printmaker who became internationally recognised as one of Britain’s most distinguished sculptors. In 2014 one of her sculptures, a large bronze of a seated man, sold at auction for £1.1 million, a record price for her work. Her main focus was on naturalistic forms and themes, which included men, birds, dogs, horses and religious motifs.

Early in her career she worked mainly with bronze outdoor sculptures, creating a scarred surface by repeatedly coating an armature with wet plaster, and each coating she distressed and broke the surface to eliminate detail and generalise form. It’s been said that her three most important works are The Nature of Man, The ‘Horseness’ of Horses and The Divine in Human Form. This exhibition includes rarely seen works that have been given on loan from private collections and the Frink Estate & Archive.

In the gallery, the first room you enter is entitled Themes, and we are given a detailed telling of Frink as a sculptor, what interested her and a small bibliography of her early life. The information board tells us of how she grew up during the time of World War II, and how she was “very, very aware of aggression” due to being “brought up in Suffolk where the air force was stationed”.

She knew about the Belsen concentration camp by the time that she was fifteen and “it couldn’t fail to make an impression”. The information board then goes on to tell of how much of an impact this had on the young artist and how she constantly went back to revisit the themes through symbolic imagery. Each room deals with a key aspect of her career in a similar way to the first.

Desert Quartet IV
 

It was during the fifties that Frink began to get prestigious commissions to reflect post-war aspirations to change the way in which people lived, worked and worshipped. A focus for her, particularly when she came back to England from living in France between 1967-1970, was masculine strength, struggle and aggression.

She was commissioned by The Avon Group for The Montague Shopping Centre in Liverpool Gardens to create a group of four heads. Within this series, we see Frink’s exploration of feeling and experience. Through simplified forms and old colour, these sculptures embody inner strength and consciousness. Desert Quartet IV, created in 1989 and a part of said series, is displayed in this exhibition.

Harbinger Bird III
 

Harbinger Bird III, sculptured in 1961 is also on show. The sculpture is a demonstration of Frink’s interest in birds, of which she made a large number of sculptures. Most of these works were raven-like birds that were morphing into stalking beasts. These images, which have their roots in numerous myths, allude to the possibility of the destruction of all life by human forces.

One particular theme that Frink was fascinated with was flight. This is evident in a series of falling figures and winged men that she created in the sixties. She explored movement, states of tension and stillness to reflect on human aggression and vulnerability. This can be seen in the Falling Man sculpture in Bronze, sculpted in 1961, of which the sixth edition is shown.

Falling Man

The exhibition also shows rarely-seen studio and archive material including original plasters, photographs, film, and the contents of her final studio at Woolland in Dorset. Throughout her lifetime Frink received many commissions for public buildings, urban environments and sacred spaces. This exhibition presents the stories of these sculptures from studio to place.

Elisabeth Frink: The Presence of Sculpture has been curated for the Djanogly Gallery by Annette Ratuszniak (Curator, Frink Estate) with Neil Walker (Head of Visual Arts Programming).

Explore the exhibition at Djanogly Art Gallery until Saturday 28 February.

Nottingham Lakeside Arts website