Dame Elisabeth Frink was a renowned British sculptor whose work is still very much admired today. Her private collection is now administered by the Elisabeth Frink Estate under the guidance of her only child, Lin Jammet. Examples of her work are often loaned out for display at events such as the recent special exhibition at Bournemouth University. Read about the life and awards of this talented British artist.
Early Life and Career of Artist Dame Elisabeth Frink
Born in the village of Little Thurlow, Suffolk on November 14, 1930 to Army officer Herbert Ralph Cuyler Frink and his wife Jean, Elisabeth Frink showed exceptional artistic talent quite early and by the age of 16 she was accepted as a student at Guildford School of Art. From there, in 1949, she moved to the Chelsea School of Art where she studied for a further four years.
It was whilst Frink was studying at Chelsea that she first became noticed by the art world. When she was 21, the Tate Gallery purchased a bronze from her first exhibition and two years later, she won a competition to create a monument representing the Unknown Political Prisoner that was to be placed on a hill near Berlin. The monument never got made, but her reputation began to grow.
After leaving Chelsea, she lived and worked in London. Her first solo exhibition appeared at St George’s Gallery in 1955 and her first major commissions were awarded to her in 1957. Then, in 1959 she exhibited in Los Angeles and New York.
Later Career, Awards and Death of Sculptress Elisabeth Frink
From 1967 to 1973, she lived in the Cevennes area of France and it was whilst she was living here that she was awarded a CBE in the Prime Minister’s section of the Birthday Honours List of 1969. Two years later, she was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy – the organisation which she famously turned down the opportunity to become the first female president of in 1985.
Back in the UK again in 1973, she worked once more in London for three years before she moved to her final home of Woolland House in the tiny Dorset village of the same name located at the foot of Bulbarrow Hill in the Blackmore Vale. One year after that, she was elected into the Royal Academy as an Academician rather than the Associate she had previously been.
In 1982, she was honoured again by the Queen when she was awarded Dame of the British Empire in the New Year’s Honours List of that year. There was a further award of Companion of Honour in the Birthday Honours List ten years later when Frink was already suffering from the throat cancer that was to ultimately kill her on April 18 1993.
Sources
- Frink at BU exhibition literature
- The Times Digital Archive [subscription required]
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