Woking, The Lightbox, The Ingram Collection: The Impact of War, 15 October 2014 – 4 January 2015;
Aylesbury, Bucks County Museum, Elisabeth Frink, 10 February – 21 April 2018;
Kendal, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Elisabeth Frink: Fragility and Power, 22 June – 29 September 2018;
Woking, The Lightbox, Elisabeth Frink: A Collector’s Passion, 13 October 2018 – 6 January 2019
The idea for this work started about the time of the Gulf War (1990-91), and goes back to conversations with Frink’s close friends Michael and Clare Morpurgo. Michael Morpurgo’s own War Horse, a children’s novel, was published in 1982. What both Frink and Morpurgo were interested in was the stoical spirit of the animal, amidst the chaos of human carnage. “My idea was to do a strong chunky animal, just standing there, almost as if it was wounded, but not plunging round in a hysterical way. The idea carried me through my operation, and I worked on it again afterwards. It was wonderful to have it there to come back to.” Frink wanted “to say something more about the horse’s relationship to man, the way the horse had carried men through countless battles. It’s an aspect of the relationship I found upsetting, but I also found it inspiring.”
