Dame Elisabeth Frink, The Shearwater from the Seabirds Series.

Year: 1974
Medium: Lithograph
Dimensions: 75 x 57.7cm
Brief biography: b. 1930, Thurlow, UK – d. 1993, Dorset, UK. A sculptor and printmaker ‘known for her monumental heads of men and animals’ (NY Times obituary.)

Frink is one of the most well-known and respected female artists of her generation.

Born in Suffolk in 1930, she studied at the Guildford School of Art (1946 – 9) and at the Chelsea School of Art (1949 – 53). Throughout her career she lived and worked in London and France, as well as regularly exhibiting internationally.

Frink explored human and animal qualities through sculpture, drawing and print. Her works often consider themes of vulnerability, strength, emotion and instinct, as well as an ongoing interest in ‘flight’.

Frink was awarded number of public sculpture commissions in her lifetime, including outdoor bronze works sited at Paternoster Square, London and Chatsworth House. Her last work, a bronze figure of Christ, was unveiled at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral on Easter Sunday 1993 (seven days before her death).

Frink was awarded a DBE (Dame of the British Empire) in 1982.