Description
Bronze on a black resin base, signed and numbered 6/8
Dimensions
Height without base: 41.2cm (16.25in)
Footnote
Frink began exploring the theme of birds of prey in the late 1950's and continued throughout the 1960's. It proved to be a particularly fertile theme for her, and one which enabled her to express and convey her attitudes to war and aggression.
Unlike contemporaries such as Reg Butler and Lynn Chadwick who similarly explored this theme, Frink was able to imbue her works with a strong physiological content and latent terror. Her birds are shown as though stalking their prey, raised on long thin legs with their bodies armoured.
Firebird dates from 1962 and is one of Frink's earliest explorations on the theme. The bird is shown with its wings drawn tightly around its body like metal armour plates and with a pincer-like beak, transforming it into a fighting machine and an image of invincibility. In terms of sheer menace, only Hitchcock in his 1963 film, The Birds, has ever come close to imbuing birds with such terror.