Sculptor, draughtsman and teacher. She studied at Guildford School of Art, 1949-53, under Willi Soukop and Bernard Meadows. She taught at Chelsea School of Art from 1951-61, St Martin’s School of Art, 1954-62, and at the Royal College of Art from 1965-67. After early exhibiting with the London Group, Frink had a one-man show at St George’s Gallery in 1955 and four years later at Bertha Schaefer Gallery, New York. Over the years she established herself as a sculptor concerned with themes, such as goggle men, running men and horses with and without riders. She also worked on many major public commissions, such as Wild Board for Harlow New Town; Blind Beggar and Dog at Bethnal Green and a noble horse and rider on Piccadilly.
Dame Elisabeth Frink, CH RA (1930-1993), Head of Christ, 1983
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Graphite on paper
39 ¼ x 24 ½ in (99.7 x 70.5 cm)
Signed and dated
Collections : With The Terry Dintenfass Gallery, New York 1985; Private Collection Washington, USA
This superb drawing is connected with Frink’s contemporaneous commission for a Head of Christ in bronze for All Saints Church, Basingstoke.
Religious commissions are a key feature of Frink’s oeuvre. Edward Lucie Smith writes that ‘’although Frink had severed her connection with organised religion, she was still essentially a believer, and the iconography of the Christian faith remained meaningful to her. In particular she was able to assimilate her own feeling for heroic male figures with the image of The Crucifixion or Risen Christ’’. Frink described the Basingstoke head as a ‘’very contemplative piece’’. The drawing was sent immediately to her American dealer, Terry Dintenfass, and is being shown in England for the first time.