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Lot Essay
The motif of the head was a crucial one throughout Frink's career. As she 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' (see E. Lucie-Smith and E. Frink, Frink a portrait, London, 1994, p. 125).
From her first head Soldier's Head in 1964 to the last Green Man in 1991, Frink used the human head as a way of exploring and expressing her ideas. Of the Memoriam series she explains, 'My recent heads, the monumental ones, are to do with Amnesty and human rights because they are memorials to people who are suffering for their beliefs.' They were, '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' (see S. Gardiner, The Official Biography of Elisabeth Frink, London, 1998, p. 205).
From her first head Soldier's Head in 1964 to the last Green Man in 1991, Frink used the human head as a way of exploring and expressing her ideas. Of the Memoriam series she explains, 'My recent heads, the monumental ones, are to do with Amnesty and human rights because they are memorials to people who are suffering for their beliefs.' They were, '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' (see S. Gardiner, The Official Biography of Elisabeth Frink, London, 1998, p. 205).