Walking Baboon

Details

Dame Elisabeth Frink, R.A. (1930-1993)
Walking Baboon
signed and numbered 'Frink/2/9' (on the chest)
bronze with a dark brown patina
16½ in. (42 cm.) long
Conceived in 1989.

Literature

E. Lucie-Smith, Elisabeth Frink Sculpture since 1984 and Drawings, London, 1994, p. 189, no. SC54, another cast illustrated.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

The baboon became a major part of Frink's oeuvre during the 1980s. Their 'physical compactness' and large skulls were the elements that appealed to Frink. The underlying theme in these sculptures alludes to 'the confrontation of the wholly natural with the human - that is, with an intelligence which has started to disassociate itself from natural things' (see E. Lucie-Smith, Elisabeth Frink, London, 1994, p. 28).

Walking Baboon displays the artist's ability to portray physical characteristics in a naturalistic manner. Through the sense of movement and attention to anatomical structure there is a feeling of weight and power.

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