About

Don’t miss this new exhibition of work by the late renowned artist Dame Elisabeth Frink, famed for her sculptures and prints of animals and the human figure.


Opening in July, this is a very special exhibition of work bequeathed to Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 2020 by the artist’s family, with many of the works displayed together for the first time.


Curated from the collection that was left to the charity, the exhibition is installed both indoors at The Weston and nearby outdoors, and extends into YSP’s breathtaking landscape. It includes several striking outdoor bronze sculptures that explore humanity and its histories, habits and tragedies.


Frink’s approach to animals and humans means that their complex and intertwined themes of vulnerability, nature connection, pain, joy and loss all endure – speaking to today’s audiences just as clearly as when she made them in the latter half of the 20th century.


The animal works displayed in the light filled The Weston Gallery show the dynamic way that Frink investigated shape and movement. Plaster models of some of the bronze works allow us to observe the artist’s process and create an immediate connection with her practice. The prints, too, have a direct connection to the artist’s thinking through vibrant mark-making. The transformation of one idea through plaster, bronze and paper shows how Frink’s thoughts could transfer through different ways of working.


For Frink, animals symbolised powerful natural forces and showed both the struggles and celebration of life. The wildness, strangeness and freedom of birds was a notable fascination. Similarly, horses and dogs were enduring; particularly their nobility in labour. Her prints and sculptures resonate with the deep connection that she felt for the forms and personalities of animals.


The towering bronze sculpture Atlas (1983) greets visitors to the Park, a mythological figure holding the weight of the earth above him. With over 90 sculptures nestled amongst historic parkland, lakes and woodland, there is a lot to explore at YSP. Installed amongst the trees on the far side of the Park the Riace figures will be joining two life-sized bronzes, Protomartyr (1976) and Standing Man (1984–6).


Frink’s human figures were rarely portraits, instead they represent meditations on the complexities of humanity itself: suffering and resilience, anger and defiance, the mechanical and the natural, and sometimes embodying a spirit of place. She often used plaster to build the form over a metal wire armature, which was then cast in bronze, a technique that means the artist’s touch is visible. The connection between material and process is highlighted in this exhibition with many plaster works on view.


Frink had a longstanding relationship with YSP, which included her outdoor retrospective in 1983. A major exhibition had been in the planning when she passed away, resulting in a poignant memorial in 1993, and her work has regularly been shown nationally and internationally since.


The artist’s late son, Lin Jammet, arranged for 200 significant works to enter the YSP collection in 2020, comprising larger-than-life-size bronze figures, watercolours, domestic-scale bronzes and related plasters. The selection illustrates his mother’s deep understanding of different aspects of humanity in relation with animals – both wild and domesticated.


To discover the whole exhibition across the park, purchase a YSP General Admission Ticket.


Venue opening hours

Monday : Closed

Tuesday : 10:00 am - 5:00 pm

Wednesday : 10:00 am - 5:00 pm

Thursday : 10:00 am - 5:00 pm

Friday : 10:00 am - 5:00 pm

Saturday : 10:00 am - 5:00 pm

Sunday : 10:00 am - 5:00 pm

    Access facilities

  • Accessible Car Parking
  • Accessible Toilet
  • Assistance Dogs Welcome
  • Wheelchair Accessible

Venue Details

Find us at

West Bretton, Wakefield, WF4 4LG

Phone

01924832631

Email

GalleryTeam@ysp.org.uk