Elisabeth Frink (1930-1993) is one of the most important names in 20th century British sculpture. Over the course of her remarkable life, tragically cut short by cancer at the age of 62, she created more than 400 sculptures, and many more works on paper, that explore human morality, masculinity, and our relationship with the natural world.
Her refusal to bend to the whims of fashion and determination to remain true to her uncompromisingly bold, semi-realist style led to criticism from the British art establishment. Yet, the exceptional power of her work precipitated enormous popularity, and Frink received many public commissions, acquisitions and honours throughout her life. In 1952, aged just 21 and still a student at Chelsea, both the Tate Gallery and the British Council acquired sculptures from her first professional exhibition. The following year, her entry for the international competition for the ‘Monument to the Unknown Political Prisoner’ was one of only 12 out of more than 3,000 to be shortlisted for a prize. This early success was followed by her inclusion in a number of important public exhibitions, including the landmark ‘Sculpture in the Open Air’ shows in London, and the British Council’s touring exhibitions of British sculpture in Europe. She was made a DBE, Companion of Honour, Royal Academician, Trustee of the British Museum and the Welsh Sculpture Trust, and a member of the Royal Fine Art Commission; and received Honorary Doctorates from the Universities of Surrey, Warwick, Cambridge, Exeter, Oxford, Keele, Manchester and Bristol, as well as the Royal College of Art and the Open University.
Today, her pieces can be found in public spaces and major collections around the world, and several of these are on public view in London, where Frink lived and worked for more than 20 years.
Bird, 1952
Tate Britain (Room 16)
Elisabeth Frink’s Bird (1952) is based on the artist’s observations of corvids, which surrounded her as a child growing up in the country. Frink also had a recurring nightmare of dark birds rushing past her head, which she attributed to the trauma of living near a military airfield during the Second World War and watching planes being shot down and crashing to Earth. The sinister hunch of the creature’s back and its spiky extremities evoke a sense of anxiety and threat that is typical of the artist’s work of this period, which became associated with the style of post-war sculpture known as the ‘geometry of fear’.
Bird also marked a landmark in Frink’s career. The sculpture was exhibited as a plaster in her first professional exhibition in 1952, whilst she was still a student at Chelsea School of Art, and the piece was purchased by the Tate Gallery, who paid for it to be cast in bronze (the first of Frink’s sculptures to be cast and the first of many to enter a public collection). The other casts from the edition of three were bought the following year by the British Council and the composer Benjamin Britten – a testament to how important Frink’s work was considered, even at this early stage in her career.
Blind Beggar and Dog, 1957
Cranbrook Estate, Bethnal Green
Blind Beggar and Dog (1957) portrays the legendary local figure of the blind beggar, as seen on Bethnal Green’s civic coat of arms. The story tells of an English knight who, having been blinded in battle, walks the streets of Bethnal Green, begging for alms. The blind beggar has a beautiful daughter who is courted by four suitors. However, three of them are put off by her father’s inability to provide a dowry, and they abandon her. But the fourth, recognising her innate nobility, marries her anyway and is given a substantial dowry by the beggar’s father.
Bethnal Green was devastated by bombing during the Second World War, and in the midst of the reconstruction, this sculpture is a reminder of the destructive consequences of conflict and that one should never judge a book by its cover.
In contrast to Frink’s earlier work, this sculpture is imbued with an awkward serenity that suffuses all of the best pieces in her oeuvre. He is vulnerable yet strong, and demonstrates the interdependent relationship between humans and animals.
Horse and Rider, 1974
New Bond Street
This is arguably one of Frink’s most famous sculptures. Horse and Rider (1974) is a continuation of a theme that the artist developed whilst living in the south of France (1967-73), where she regularly rode out with the cowboys of the Camargue region. She had bought a horse for her son Lin and used to love watching him ride and observing the animal in its paddock and stable. Frink had been brought up with horses and the Horse and Rider pair is a comment on humanity’s ‘constantly negotiated’ relationship with nature. It is a statement about tension, authenticity, harmony, symbiosis and mutual respect, intended to make the viewer reflect on their own existence. Frink always preferred her large-scale sculptures to be seen outdoors, and the subject’s incongruity in its urban setting only adds to the striking encounter facilitated by the artist.
Paternoster, 1975
Paternoster Square, City of London
Elisabeth Frink’s Paternoster (1975) harks back to Paternoster Square’s history as the site of the Newgate Livestock Market. The subject was a familiar one for the artist, who had spent the last six years living in Corbès in the south of France (1967-73), creating many sculptures, drawings and prints based on observations of local farmers and cowboys and their semi-wild animals. The sculpture of a shepherd tending his flock, which resides in the shadow of St Paul’s Cathedral, may also carry biblical undertones. ‘Paternoster’ is Latin for ‘our father’, as in the Catholic incipit for the Lord’s Prayer, and the route of the word ‘pastor’, the leader of a Christian congregation. Additionally, in the Gospel of John, Jesus refers to himself as ‘the good shepherd’, who would lay down his life for his sheep. This sentiment resonates with Frink’s humanitarianism, and she often portrayed Christ as a heroic figure of self-sacrifice and moral fortitude.
written by Wilfrid Wright, writer, curator and art historian
November 2023
