In Memoriam I

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. Frink, quoted in 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).