Dame Elisabeth Frink, R.A. (1930-1993)
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's… Read more PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION
Dame Elisabeth Frink, R.A. (1930-1993)

In Memoriam III

Details
Dame Elisabeth Frink, R.A. (1930-1993)
In Memoriam III
signed and numbered 'Frink 2/6' (on the right shoulder)
bronze with a dark brown patina
52 in. (132.1 cm.) high
Conceived in 1983.
Provenance
with New Art Centre, London, where purchased by the present owner in August 1996.
Literature
B. Robertson (intro.), Elisabeth Frink Sculpture: Catalogue Raisonné, Salisbury, 1984, pp. 198-199, no. 284, another cast illustrated.
S. Kent, exhibition catalogue, Elisabeth Frink: Sculpture and Drawings 1952-84, London, Royal Academy, 1985, pp. 18, 53, 59, no. 85, another cast illustrated.
N. Cameron, exhibition catalogue, Elisabeth Frink: Sculpture & Drawings, Hong Kong, The Rotunda, Exchange Square, Hong Kong Festival, 1989, n.p., exhibition not numbered, another cast illustrated.
B. Robertson, exhibition catalogue, Elisabeth Frink: Sculpture and Drawings 1950-90, Washington, DC, National Museum of Women of the Arts, 1990, pp. 53, 65, exhibition not numbered, another cast illustrated.
Exhibition catalogue, Frink: Sculpture, Drawings and Prints, London, Beaux Arts, 1998, n.p., exhibition not numbered, another cast illustrated.
S. Gardiner, Frink: The Official Biography of Elisabeth Frink, London, 1998, pp. 187, 205, 226, 233, 235, 243, another cast.
A. Goodchild, Catalogue of the Ingram Collection of Modern British Art, Woking, The Lightbox, 2009, another cast.
A. Ratuszniak (ed.), Elisabeth Frink, Catalogue Raisonné of Sculpture 1947-93, London, 2013, pp. 24, 160, no. FCR322, another cast illustrated.
Exhibited
London, Royal Academy, Elisabeth Frink: Sculpture and Drawings 1952-1984, February - March 1985, no. 85, another cast exhibited.
Newcastle-under-Lyme, University of Keele, Elisabeth Frink: Sculpture and Drawings, June - July 1988, no. 14, another cast exhibited.
Hong Kong, The Rotunda, Exchange Square, Hong Kong Festival, Elisabeth Frink: Sculpture & Drawings, January - March 1989, exhibition not numbered, another cast exhibited.
Washington, DC, The National Museum for Women in the Arts, Elisabeth Frink: Sculpture and Drawings 1950-1990, 1990, exhibition not numbered, another cast exhibited.
London, Beaux Arts, Frink: Sculpture, Drawings and Prints, to accompany the publication of S. Gardiner, Frink: The Official Biography of Elisabeth Frink, 1998, exhibition not numbered, another cast exhibited.
Special notice
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent. This lot will be removed to Christie’s Park Royal. Christie’s will inform you if the lot has been sent offsite. Our removal and storage of the lot is subject to the terms and conditions of storage which can be found at Christies.com/storage and our fees for storage are set out in the table below - these will apply whether the lot remains with Christie’s or is removed elsewhere. Please call Christie’s Client Service 24 hours in advance to book a collection time at Christie’s Park Royal. All collections from Christie’s Park Royal will be by pre-booked appointment only. Tel: +44 (0)20 7839 9060 Email: cscollectionsuk@christies.com. If the lot remains at Christie’s it will be available for collection on any working day 9.00 am to 5.00 pm. Lots are not available for collection at weekends.

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Lot Essay

The motif of the head was a crucial one throughout Frink's career, spanning from 1959 to the end of the 1980s. As the artist explains, 'Heads have always been very important to me as vehicles for sculpture. A head is infinitely variable. It's complicated and it's extremely emotional. Everyone's emotions are in their faces. It's not surprising that there are sculptures of massive heads going way back, or that lots of other artists beside myself have found the subject fascinating' (E. Lucie-Smith and E. Frink, Frink a Portrait, London, 1994, p. 125). From the semi-abstract heads of 1959, the Dormant Head and Fish Head of 1961, the Soldier's Head series of the mid 1960s and the Tribute Heads of 1975-76; these culminate in her last heads, the monumental In Memoriam heads of 1981-83. The In Memoriam heads are larger than life forms and each one emanates a sense of suffering and stoicism, persecuted men who have endured injustice and inhumanity. Whether the heads evoke Christian martyrs or political prisoners, their specific timeline is unimportant as the concept of suffering is universal and stretches over centuries of injustice.

Talking of the development in this motif Frink explained, 'The group of heads that I started in 1975, a group of four heads with their eyes shut, are the Tribute Heads and refer to people who have died for their beliefs. In a sense these sculptures are a tribute to Amnesty International. The heads represent the inhumanity of man - they are the heads of victims. The more recent heads of 1981, which I call In Memoriam and which form a pair, have their eyes open but are still an extension of the same theme: people who have been tortured for their beliefs, whatever they are' (E. Frink, quoted in B. Robertson, exhibition catalogue, Elisabeth Frink: Sculpture and Drawings 1950-90, Washington, DC, National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1990, p. 53, excerpts from an interview conducted in the summer of 1984). They are 'for those people who are living under repressive regimes, who are not allowed freedom of thought, who are being persecuted for their politics or religion, or being deprived of the dignity of daily living and working. The heads are compassionate yet defiant. I hope they represent suffering and survival. And finally the optimism to go through suffering to the other side' (E. Frink, quoted in S. Gardiner, The Official Biography of Elisabeth Frink, London, 1998, p. 205).

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