A 13-year-old Elisabeth Frink was walking along the coast in Exmouth with school friends, when machine-gunned German warplanes descended, dropping bombs above her head. Torn so violently from childhood, the traumatic encounter left an ineradicable impression on Frink.
The memory of personal and collective trauma – the Second World War, the hydrogen bomb – would preoccupy Frink in her work as a sculptor over 40 years, in more than 400 sculptures she produced (she only had an assistant once, to complete her last and largest work, The Welcoming Christ at Liverpool Cathedral). She is perhaps, Britain’s most successful underrated artist, but now, her work is beginning to receive the recognition and study it deserves.
Installation view of 'Elisabeth Frink: Transformation'.
'Perhaps it’s difficult to talk about the things humans are capable of, but if you mix man with beast, you can start to address some of those thoughts in a more compelling way,' says Annette Ratuszniak, curator of the Frink Estate, who worked closely with Hauser & Wirth Somerset's Senior Director, Alice Workman to put together the first major exhibition of the artist’s work in the UK, at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, close to Frink’s Dorset home and studio where she worked up until her death in 1993.
Focused on the early period of her work – sculptures and sketches from the 1950s and 1960s – the exhibition touches on the cathartic nature of the process of sculpting, and brings together some of Frink’s motifs: birds and bird-like figures, eyes and heads. Imposing, dark and heavy looking, it’s hard to imagine that these works were produced at the time the world went pop.
Elisabeth Frink and 'Tribute Heads' in her Southwark studio, 1975
Yet Frink wasn’t really an 'age of anxiety' artist. Her son, Lin Jammet, who also collaborated on the exhibition, remembers his mother as a 'natural socialite', a joyful person who frequented Finch’s, a popular drinking hole for artists on the Fulham Road in the 1960s, 'a proper pub with sawdust on the floor, the sweet aroma of ale and tobacco bellowing out every time someone entered or came out.'
Through sculpture, Frink imagined all forms – human and animal – as malleable, bringing about transformations through plaster. In reshaping the world in her studio, she also saw the vulnerability of the human form – relevant in our tumultuous times, just as much as it was in Frink’s own.
Frink created 400 sculptures in her 40 year career
Man meets beast in her visceral works
Frink imagined all forms as malleable, bringing about transformations through plaster
The exhibition also features early sketches from the 1950s and 1960s
INFORMATION
’Transformation’ is on view until 7 May. For more information, visit the Hauser & Wirth website
ADDRESS
Hauser & Wirth Somerset
Durslade Farm
Dropping Lane
Bruton
Somerset BA10 0NL
-
This nostalgic exhibition dives into a century of British surfingCornwall's National Maritime Museum charts the history of waveriding on England's south coast
-
Waiheke Island is a must-visit for oenophiles and aesthetes alikeDiscover what to do during this New Zealand destination's annual Walking Festival and beyond
-
Bold colours and tactile textures: inside Bottega Veneta's second fine jewellery dropThe collection is composed of two parts: Enlaced and Alchemy
-
Inside the distorted world of artist George RouyFrequently drawing comparisons with Francis Bacon, painter George Rouy is gaining peer points for his use of classic techniques to distort the human form
-
Inside Jack Whitten’s contribution to American contemporary artAs Jack Whitten exhibition ‘Speedchaser’ opens at Hauser & Wirth, London, and before a major retrospective at MoMA opens next year, we explore the American artist's impact
-
The lesser-known Los Angeles galleries contributing to a vibrant art sceneOutside of LACMA, MOCA and The Broad, these independent LA galleries are major players in the art world
-
Frieze Sculpture takes over Regent’s ParkTwenty-two international artists turn the English gardens into a dream-like landscape and remind us of our inextricable connection to the natural world
-
Larry Bell explores the ethereal nature of glass in MonacoLarry Bell's retrospective at Hauser & Wirth, Monaco, unites old and new work
-
Los Angeles art exhibitions: the best shows to see in March 2025Read our pick of the best Los Angeles art exhibitions to see this month, from journeying through cowboy culture at Albertz Benda to LA-based artist Kelly Akashi at Lisson Gallery
-
Nicole Eisenman explores the dimensions of sculpture and painting at Hauser & Wirth ParisNicole Eisenman presents ‘with, and, of, on Sculpture’, her first retrospective at Hauser & Wirth Paris drawing inspiration from political challengers to ABBA
-
Harlem-born artist Tschabalala Self’s colourful ode to the landscape of her childhoodTschabalala Self’s new show at Finland's Espoo Museum of Modern Art evokes memories of her upbringing, in vibrant multi-dimensional vignettes
