Our two new exhibitions are now open and are well worth a visit. Lest We Forget: The Black Contribution to the World Wars in Wiltshire and Eric Walrond: a Caribbean Writer in Wiltshire, both contain themes and stories which may be unfamiliar to many of us, but there is much to discover about individuals who have lived and worked in Wiltshire. More information below and from our website.
We have a couple of new lectures – on 16 December Rob Davis will be giving a talk about Flint and fire: the first half million years of early humans in Britain and David Clensy will be giving a talk about his long walk around Wiltshire’s White Horses, with his 10-year old son on 5 December. There are still tickets available for Martin Papworth’s talk about the search for Stourton Castle on Saturday 25 November.
Online ‘Walks’
Virtual Tour – Diverse London – City Public Art by Refugees and Immigrants 27 November 6.30pm
Your guide: Marilyn Greene
Description: Discover public art in the City created by immigrants and refugees to the UK. Art works range from the 17th to the 20th centuries and include works from artists from Denmark, France, Russia, sculptures by refugees from Nazi Europe and concludes with a work by a refugee from former Yugoslavia.
Virtual Tour – In Search of Churchill 30 November 10.30am
Your guide: David Charnick
Description: Visit sites in Westminster associated with the political career of one of Britain’s most famous statesmen.
Virtual Tour – Adventures in Shakespeare’s Bankside: Bears, Bards and Bawds 30 November 7pm
Your guide: Mark Rowland
Description: An extended version for the 400th anniversary of the First Folio, not only will we explore the “Viper’s nest of vagabonds and thieves” of Elizabethan Bankside, we will also venture north of the river into The City to explore the the origins of the book that saved the words of Shakespeare
Thursday, 14 December, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
A 17th-century Christmas
With Tim Healey, cost £10 / £6.50 SoG Members
Dame Elisabeth Frink’s deep connection to Dorset is celebrated with a major exhibition at Dorset Museum
One of the most celebrated sculptors of recent times – and the first female sculptor to be elected as a Royal Academician in 1973 – Dame Elisabeth Frink (1930-1993) produced over 400 sculptures throughout her illustrious career, a significant part of which were produced at her Woolland studio in Dorset between 1976 and 1993.
Thirty years after her death, this first ever exhibition dedicated to Frink’s time in Dorset showcases over 80 sculptures, drawings and prints at Dorset Museum, including the never publicly displayed working plasters that informed her famous bronze sculptures.
A significant cultural gift was given to 12 public museums across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, with Dorset Museum receiving more than 300 works in 2020, making it one of the largest public collections of Frinks’ work. The Frink Estate gifted 31 bronze sculptures, more than 100 prints and drawings along with several original plaster sculptures, studio tools and equipment.
As part of this new exhibition, her Dorset studio is recreated featuring her tools and the working plasters that formed the basis of some of her most well-known bronze sculptures. But beyond the insights into how she worked and her artistic process, visitors will get a chance to explore the influence of her private Dorset life, with a selection of personal possessions on display including letters and photographs.
Works in A View from Within draws from this illuminating collection, augmented by pieces from the Frink Archive at the Dorset History Centre, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and The Ingram Collection of Modern British and Contemporary Art. The result is a show revealing the breadth of Frink’s subject matter and mastery of different techniques, from works that have been seen by millions in public, to those she privately pursued.
The exhibition includes Frink’s response to the then-recent discovery of two life-size Greek bronzes near the Italian coast with her sculpture Riace III (1988), a masterpiece of movement and muscle standing over 2 metres tall, inspired by the visual concept of the warriors as well as the scholarly commentary which designated them as ‘thuggish’.
The natural world was also important to Frink, especially the relationships between those that populated it. Animals would routinely be her subjects, both in sculpture such as with Small Standing Dog (1991), and printmaking with Little Owl (1977) and Blue Horse Head (1988). Frink was well known for her fascination with the form of horses and the spiritual properties they possessed. One of the last sculptures that she ever completed, Standing Horse (1993), was finished at Woolland only weeks before her death from cancer and is included in the exhibition.
Other work she produced during her illness offers an insight into her own spirituality. Green Man (1992) was inspired by the book of the same name by poet William Anderson, which looked at ideas of regeneration and healing through nature. Frink was raised in the Catholic tradition, and although she professed ambivalence to organised religion during her life, her sculptures reflect a broad knowledge of religious ideas and thought.
Walking Madonna (1981) is a rare study of a female body by Frink, which casts Mary in movement, striding with strength despite the grief that clearly consumes her face. It is one of several of Frink’s sculptures that has been located at places of worship or nature during the last few decades.
Elisabeth Frink: A View from Within is at Dorset Museum from December 2 2023 – April 21 2024.