Dame Elisabeth Frink
‘I feel that as religion is a vocation for many people – nuns and monks are solitary people – so art is a comparable vocation for artists because of the solitariness of our work.’
Best known for being one of Britain’s leading post war sculptures, Dame Elisabeth Frink (1930 – 1993) was also an enthusiastic and prolific printmaker. Being a sculptor Elisabeth Frink loved the process of working on stone and her first lithographs in 1965 were developed in this way in her ‘Spinning Man’ series. A few years later Frink began to investigate colour and so a zinc plate was required. She adored wildlife and by 1974 birds had become an obsession. With her Six Owls series, the colour range is comparatively small and combined with BFK Rives paper with its finer surface, the overall effect is one of great subtly and softness of tone.
She was part of a post-war group of British sculptors, dubbed the Geometry of Fear school, that included Reg Butler, Bernard Meadows, Kenneth Armitage and Eduardo Paolozzi. Frink’s subject matter included men, birds, dogs, horses and religious motifs, but very seldom any female forms.
EDUCATION:
Guildford School of Art (now the University for the Creative Arts) (1946–1949) and at the Chelsea School of Art (1949–1953)
“I love doing prints, and every time I do some I think this is exciting – why don't I do more?”
Interview:
