Wild Boar by  Dame Elisabeth Frink

1967

Wild Boar

Listen to curator's interpretation

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Curatorial notes

Editor: So this is Dame Elisabeth Frink's "Wild Boar" from the Tate collection. I find its kind of ghostly color palette, really intriguing. What do you make of its raw energy? Curator: That's a great word for it, raw. It reminds me of cave paintings, that immediate, almost desperate need to capture the animal's essence. Frink was obsessed with capturing masculine power in vulnerable states, do you see that here? Editor: I think so, yeah. It's both powerful and kind of fragile, especially in the legs. Curator: Exactly. And perhaps that’s where its lasting magic lies, in that tension between brute strength and vulnerability, between life and… well, the hunt. It’s a haunting piece.