Dame Elisabeth Frink CH DBE RA was a British sculptor and printmaker.
Elisabeth Frink studied at the Guildford School of Art (1946-1949) and Chelsea School of Art (1949-1953). Frink’s subject matter varies from animals to male figures, where she explores their strengths and vulnerabilities as well as their relationship to one another. Growing up in the Suffolk countryside during the Second World War, Frink’s stark interpretation of conflict and post-war angst at the 1952 Venice Biennale aligned her practice with the ‘Geometry of Fear’ group including contemporaries Reg Butler, Bernard Meadows and Kenneth Armitage. That same year aged just 22, Frink held her first solo exhibition at London’s Beaux Arts Gallery, where London’s Tate Gallery acquired the bronze Bird for their permanent collection. This early imagery took the form of menacing ravens and vultures, which later morphed into hybrid ‘birdman’ sculptures, inspired by themes of flight and the soldiers she grew up around. Later animal sculptures of dogs and horses further explored man’s gentler relationship to nature, capturing a companionship and strength between them. Horses, in particular, became a seminal aspect of her practice. Depicted both in motion and standing still they feature alongside her male figures as trusted partners or as solitary beings, representing freedom and beauty.
A fascination with the human form and concept of masculinity also led to numerous works featuring barrel-chested men and male heads with mask-like features. Having felt that the female form was too traditional in its representation within art, Frink found that the male could instead be used as a presence far removed from the idealised portrayals of Western society. Her figures capture the complexities of the human condition in their physical forms as well as the energy and emotion under the surface.
Frink's sculptures are characterised by their distinctive rugged surfaces, as she instinctively layered and carved into her plaster of Paris models by hand and without the use of studio assistants. The artist’s first major commission came in 1962 where she created Coventry Cathedral’s bronze Eagle (Lectern) as a symbol of strength following the heavy bombardment during World War Two. Her figurative sculptures and primarily religious-themed commissions can also be found primarily across the UK, including Horse and Rider, 1975, New Bond Street, London, Walking Madonna, 1981 at Salisbury Cathedral, Dorset Martyrs Memorial, 1986 in Dorchester and Risen Christ, 1993, Liverpool Cathedral. In 1977, she was elected a member of the Royal Academy and was allocated an RA retrospective in 1985. She received a CBE title in 1969 and was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1982. As one of Britain’s most celebrated female sculptors of the 20th century, she was one of five women chosen to be featured on British postage stamps in 1966.
Elisabeth Frink is subject to a major exhibition, Natural Connection at Yorkshire Sculpture Park from June 2024 until February 2025.