This illustrated talk will examine how Dame Elisabeth Frink while living at Woolland in Dorset, was able to build upon her technical mastery and explore her mature ideas and concepts.

Frink, with her third husband Alex Csáky, made a home where she could focus on her work and entertain family, friends, and clients. She had a studio built within the extensive grounds where she could create sculptures large and small, and fulfill major commissions. Here she could also observe her sculptures in natural light against different settings and in varying arrangements. We will look at how this influenced aspects of her working practice.

The creation and context of sculptures made at Woolland will be discussed, along with their continued relevance to challenges facing the human species.

A retired museum curator and art historian, Annette Ratuszniak worked with the Elisabeth Frink Estate and Archive from 1995 to 2019. During this time she also curated three major Frink exhibitions. She is the author of the Elisabeth Frink Catalogue Raisonné of Sculpture 1947-1993, published by Lund Humphries in 2013.

In 2017, after the death of Frink’s son Lin Jammet, she oversaw the bequest to 12 UK museums and galleries, of the artworks, studio contents, and archive of the Frink estate. She continues to support the beneficiary museums and archive, which includes Dorset Museum & Art Gallery