Elisabeth Frink

(U.K.) *1930 in Thurlow, England; †1993 in Blandford Forum, England

Elisabeth Frink's art is always figurative: many of her sculptures present mythically charged animal figures, such as birds, eagles, water buffaloes, or war horses. Moreover, she is known for a series of major portraits. Her sculpture “In Memoriam II“ displayed at “Blickachsen 6“ takes up the portrait bust as a classical theme in sculpture and as a form of commemorating an individual. With her essentially traditional bronze sculptures, Frink has never fallen victim to current fashions. She has remained true to herself and follows in the line of a Wilhelm Lehmbruck: the human figure functions as an expression of existential experiences. In her sculpture entitled “Atlas“, Frink focuses on a theme from Greek mythology and a traditional motif in sculpting: Zeus condemned Atlas for siding with his fellow Titans against the Gods to forever bear the heavens or the globe on his shoulders. Yet Frink's “Atlas“ does not depict power and stability but instead instability and thus threatened failure that prompts us to fear or sense that the intimated globe may slip.