Since last October, we have had David Johnston-Smith as a Project Archivist cataloguing the Dame Elisabeth Frink collection held at Dorset History Centre. The latter part of this project has been made more challenging by circumstances, but in this blog, David wanted to give his thoughts on the project and the collection as a whole…
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My time cataloguing the Elisabeth Frink archive, provided to Dorset History Centre in accordance with the wishes of the artist’s late son, Lin Jammet, has now sadly drawn to a close and I am leaving to work with other collections. The archive, which consists of mainly photographic and paper records (along with a selection of her art, sculpture and assorted ephemera) from throughout Frink’s life (1930-1993) and career, is now approximately 80-85% complete, with only a quantity of mixed photographic material (some professional, some family images) still to be catalogued.
This has been a wonderful collection to work with, and the satisfaction in working in close proximity to the records of one of the country’s finest twentieth century sculptors can not be overstated. Unlike when I started, I’m fairly certain I could not now walk past one of her 402 catalogued sculptures (or numerous drawings, paintings and prints) without recognising who created it, and where it fitted within their 40+ year working life. In gaining this knowledge over the last year, it has been a great joy to know that as I have created and added to the catalogue structure, and repackaged the records, they will now be safe, secure and available to access by researchers of all kinds for many years to come.
The records come in all shapes and sizes. Many of them, such as the critically important stock books, which provide details of all of the editions of Frink’s sculpture, will be in demand by the art world as a whole wanting to add greater detail to their understanding of a particular piece. Others will be of interest to biographers, and researchers interested in the life of Frink. I find some of the earlier records, such as this lovely little image created when Frink was 14 and at school in wartime Exmouth fascinating and illuminating, especially when one remembers that it was only about 5 years later that she started creating her distinctive sculptural works.
It was pleasing to see some of the archive (including some small plasters of Frink’s chess pieces and birds of prey, as well as facsimiles of letters, cards and photographs) used in the ongoing Messums Wiltshire exhibition which recreates the actual studio from Woolland House, Dorset in which Frink worked for the last 15 years of her life, within the Great Barn in Tisbury which houses the Messums gallery. There will also be an opportunity to view a great range of Frink sculpture when the newly refurbished Dorset Museum opens its doors early next year.
Do please keep an eye on our newsletters, blogs and social media in the months ahead for further information about when and how the completed collection will be made available to all.
Really loving all the Frink stuff. Thank you so much.
it would be interesting to have a talk about the Frink Archive .
Hi Angelika, thanks for your comment. As with many things, CV19 has impacted our plans for the promotion of the collection in recent months. We would love to do something about Frink in the future, but nothing firm has yet been decided unfortunately.
I went to Stourton School (Stourhead) and while their, Elisabeth Frink worked from her barn at Kilmington, the next village. I remember her coming to the school (~1950) with small unglazed pots, one for each pupil of the junior class (ages about 8-10). She also supplied natural glazes (Leach-like) for us to decorate our pots. She then took the pots away for firing and later returned them to us at the school. Even at that young age I was impressed by her enthusiasm. Much, much later in life I simply had to go to her exhibition at Salisbury Cathedral Close and found it mind-provoking. So I am looking forward to any exhibits at the museum.
Hi Dan, thanks for your message! Currently, Messums in Wiltshire have a Frink based exhibition on, which runs until 18th October, and is worth checking out. We hope to display some of Frink’s material at Dorset History Centre in the future, but CV19 has affected our plans in this regard! Watch this space!