Lot Essay
The present work was originally conceived by Frink as an emblem for the television programme The Midas Touch which was presented by Anthony Sampson and directed by Mark Csáky, her stepson. Midas Head work stands as an exploration of history and culture, as well as a study into Frink’s beloved medium of bronze.
Having grown up near a military airfield, Frink’s childhood experiences of the Second World War became central to her work, with the themes of both masculinity and vulnerability preoccupying her throughout her career. Although motifs of soldiers and warriors wielding shields and armour can be found in her work as early as the 1950s, it was her discovery of the Riace bronzes in the 1980s which inspired a body of work which more directly references the soldiers of Ancient Greece. The Riace bronzes, depicting two full-size nude Greek warriors, are shrouded in mystery and mythology as they were drawn from the sea, off the coast of Riace, Calabria, like lost artefacts of Atlantis. These ancient bronzes inspired some of the most recognisable and sought after works of Frink’s oeuvre, including Midas Head.
Stephen Gardiner describes, ‘Significantly, in view of her new enchantment with the Pacific Region, her mask had a distinct resemblance to those found in New Guinea on Mabuiag Island north of Australia… Certainly [Frink] had never created anything in the least like It before, and, after it was cast… she began on the colouring with Ken Cook, trying out all the colours she could think of, different for each casting’ (S. Gardiner, Frink, London, 1998, p. 264).
Having grown up near a military airfield, Frink’s childhood experiences of the Second World War became central to her work, with the themes of both masculinity and vulnerability preoccupying her throughout her career. Although motifs of soldiers and warriors wielding shields and armour can be found in her work as early as the 1950s, it was her discovery of the Riace bronzes in the 1980s which inspired a body of work which more directly references the soldiers of Ancient Greece. The Riace bronzes, depicting two full-size nude Greek warriors, are shrouded in mystery and mythology as they were drawn from the sea, off the coast of Riace, Calabria, like lost artefacts of Atlantis. These ancient bronzes inspired some of the most recognisable and sought after works of Frink’s oeuvre, including Midas Head.
Stephen Gardiner describes, ‘Significantly, in view of her new enchantment with the Pacific Region, her mask had a distinct resemblance to those found in New Guinea on Mabuiag Island north of Australia… Certainly [Frink] had never created anything in the least like It before, and, after it was cast… she began on the colouring with Ken Cook, trying out all the colours she could think of, different for each casting’ (S. Gardiner, Frink, London, 1998, p. 264).