And she did this single-handedly, without the assistants so many other sculptors rely on. As she worked the dripping plaster she would add paper, scrim, wood or chunks of old dried plaster – her own fierce energy going directly into the process. She would create a wire armature, adding plaster, working it back with a rasp and chisel. Image: Tate Hard-workingįrink produced over 400 sculptures in her lifetime. Her obsession with exploring ruthless male potency is sadly all too relevant today. Frink was a lifelong supporter of Amnesty International and her preoccupation with humanity, and its mix of aggression and vulnerability in post war Europe is something that can speak to us all. With an open mind and fresh eye, here are my top three reasons to believe that Elisabeth Frink is indeed one of the foremost sculptors of her generation: Her HumanityĪlthough her work is mostly male figures, they are first and foremost human, archetypal. But am I so shallow, or so foolish to think that only those starving in garrets deserve the title ‘artist’? Her family was intimately connected to the old Empire, with all its connotations of oppression and prejudice. Frink was educated at a convent boarding school with access to a rich collection of lavish resources. She spent an idyllic childhood with nannies and nursemaids in an upper middle class country home. So what exactly IS my problem with Elizabeth Frink? Well, let’s see: she was pampered and privileged. Bronze sculpture situated in Paternoster Square, London. Elisabeth Frink ‘Paternoster’ also known as ‘Shepherd and Sheep’ 1975. Any urban shopping development seemed to require a Frink to sit alongside Woolworths and Marks and Spencer. Frink’s work is everywhere: on street corners, in social housing programmes, outside squat new-build churches, in new towns. She was lauded throughout her lifetime with hundreds of public commissions. ![]() ![]() Born in 1930, she was a Dame, a CBE, a Royal Academician and a Companion of Honour. Statues by Elizabeth Frink litter the British landscape.
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