Dame Elisabeth Frink RA,

British 1930-1993 -

Assassins I, 1963;

bronze with brown patina, signed and numbered 'Frink 5/8', H55 x W17.8 x D17 cm (ARR)

Provenance: Sotheby's, London, 11th March 1992, lot 188, illus.pg.60; The Geoffrey and Fay Elliott collection, purchased from the above and thence by descent

Exhibited:

Waddington Galleries, London, Elisabeth Frink, 11th October-4th November 1972 (another cast)

Royal Academy of Arts, London, 'Elisabeth Frink: Sculpture and Drawings 1952-1984', 8th February-24th March 1985 (another cast)

Literature:

Edwin Mullins, 'The Art of Elisabeth Frink', 1972, Lund Humphries, p.49 (another cast illus.)

Bryan Robertson, 'Elisabeth Frink Sculpture', 1984, Harpvale, pp.158-9, cat. no.104 (another cast illus.)

Sarah Kent, 'Elisabeth Frink: Sculpture and Drawing 1952-1984', Royal Academy, 1985, p.16, (another cast illus.)

Annette Ratuszniak, ed., 'Elisabeth Frink: Catalogue Raisonné of Sculpture 1947-93', 2013, Lund Humphries, cat. no.FCR128, p.90 (another cast illus.)

Note: This powerful early work displays one of the artists most characteristic and unique themes, armoured male figures. Central to Frink's work is a sense of energy and physical presence and she was one of very few artists who focused on the male figure in her work, setting her apart from her contemporaries. Depicted here half-naked yet wearing uniform, her figures evoke both power and vulnerability, combined with a timeless quality, that is at once ancient and modern.

Frink created two works focusing on the theme of Assassins, which were influenced by the assassination of JFK. This event and the ongoing threat of the Cold War, influenced how Frink depicted her figures, in particular in their helmeted heads, making them simultaneously remote yet scrutinising of the viewer. This is a rare sculpture of multiple figures in the artist's oeuvre and the treatment of the figure's faces points to the artist's seminal 'Goggle Heads'. Other casts of this work are in the Arts Council Collection.