NOTTINGHAM.- The Djanogly Gallery announces a major survey exhibition of Dame Elisabeth Frink’s public sculpture commissions. Conceived and organised in partnership with The Frink Estate & Archive, ‘The Presence of Sculpture’ focuses, for the first time, on presenting the journey from Frink’s private studio to the public realm of post-war Britain. Over 70 artworks are displayed, while her practice is revealed through never-before-seen archive material including recently conserved drawings, sculpture from her private collection, her tools and studio records, and original film footage and photographs of the artist at work.
Frink received many commissions for social housing, religious buildings, New Towns and urban developments throughout her life, and these played an important part in her artistic career. The commissioned works – which can be seen in situ around Britain today – are represented in the gallery exhibition by full-scale bronze casts as well as editions, studies and maquettes. Significant sculpture groups are represented, including the Dorset Martyrs, the Desert Quartet and Riace figures. The exhibition spans over 35 years of Frink’s oeuvre, from Blind Beggar and Dog (1957) – now on display at Bethnal Green in London – to Risen Christ (1993) which was unveiled in Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral a few days before her death.
Divided into four themes, ‘The Presence of Sculpture’ exhibits celebrated subjects of Frink’s distinctive expressive bronzes – male figures, heads, metamorphic bird/beast shapes and animals. These motifs allowed the artist to explore our relationship with the natural world, and man’s power and vulnerability in the face of war, religion and daily life. Her Riace figures for instance, which were inspired by fifth-century Greek statues of warriors, examine human nature through their dichotomy of beauty and menace. The messages of her outdoor sculpture varied throughout her career, as she continued to develop new ways of using her chosen medium of plaster cast into bronze. The forms, surfaces, marks, scale and use of details evolved as she moved from building the plaster when semi-liquid to also carving it when dry.
Never before have the workings of Elisabeth Frink’s mind been given shape so fully in an exhibition. Frink based herself in a succession of studios - in London, France and finally in Woolland, Dorset, where she lived and worked for the last 15 years of her life. Each of these personal spaces is presented through life-size photographs of Frink at work, while aspects of Woolland are uniquely recreated in the gallery. Throughout the 400 square metre gallery space, displays include: sculptures and recently conserved drawings from her personal collection; fragile plasters unlikely to be exhibited again; the working contents of her studio, including her tools, the crates and stands she built her sculptures on; the chair that the subjects of her portraits, such as Alec Guinness, would have sat upon, and much more.
Annette Ratuszniak, Curator, The Frink Estate & Archive, said: “The commissions are woven into this evolving story and the exhibition provides a fascinating insight into Frink’s inspirations and working methods, and the significance of the ongoing presence of her commissioned work. Some have fared better than others – silent witnesses of changing places and communities in modern Britain.”
Professor Sir David Greenaway, Vice-Chancellor, The University of Nottingham commented: “We are tremendously excited to be presenting this major exhibition of Frink’s work at the University of Nottingham’s Djanogly Gallery in collaboration with the Frink Estate. In 2011-12, the gallery attracted record audience figures for its LOWRY exhibition. Both projects have received the very generous support from great friends of the University, Sir Harry and Lady Djanogly. We confidently expect that Frink’s abiding popular appeal will generate a similar high level of public interest”.
This exhibition has been curated by Annette Ratuszniak, Curator, The Frink Estate & Archive, with Neil Walker, Head of Visual Arts Programming, Nottingham Lakeside Arts
