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The male form was at the core of Elisabeth Frink’s sculptural practice. Having come from a younger generation so heavily smarted by the Second World War, she saw men’s nature as a root cause of war and the atrocities of warfare. Drawn to the male figure, yet equality repulsed by it she stated ‘I have focussed on the male, because to me he is a subtle combination of sensuality and strength with vulnerability’.
Out of the war a new generation of sculptors had grown, the ‘Geometry of Fear’ group, which included Lynn Chadwick, Kenneth Armitage, Eduardo Paolozzi and Reg Butler – all of whom were concerned with the post-war condition of the human form, and it is within this context that her work Sentinel sits. Warriors, sentinels, and helmeted heads inhabit Frink’s oeuvre in the late 1950s into the 1960s, using the male form as an instrument to express both aggression and vulnerability, starkly contrasting to the traditional notion of man as the ideal hero. Frink was subverting the natural order by reverting the age-long tradition of the artistic male gaze on the female form.
Lyon & Turnbull are delighted to offer several auctions a year across the UK featuring to Modern British painting, sculpture, prints and drawings - including MODERN MADE in London. These Modern British art auctions feature works from the likes of Walter Sickert and the Camden Town Group to Terry Frost and the St Ives School, we also handle selected works by all of 20th century Europe’s major figures and movements.
This area continues to lead the UK art market and is going from strength to strength. Success for our clients hinges on our ability to offer a level of focused marketing effort that our competitors don’t, notably touring highlights of our sales round the country to the nation’s art capitals of London and Edinburgh.
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