A bronze humanoid figure, displayed outdoors.

Elisabeth Frink: Judas

Art Outdoors /

Elisabeth Frink: Judas

The figure of Judas is a powerful embodiment of betrayal. Elisabeth Frink tackles the ambiguities of the character: his blunt hands and contorted body and face seem strange and uncomfortable; his masked eyes and deep, gouged features are brutal and harsh.

Frink usually worked in her studio alone and made most of her sculptures by building up plaster onto a framework made using metal rods and wire. Once the plaster had dried, she would work into the surface with an axe, chisels and files to create expressive textures. The plaster sculptures would then be cast in bronze at a foundry.

An exhibition of Frink’s sculpture, prints and plaster models – Natural Connection – is on display at The Weston until 23 February 2025.

Courtesy The Frink Estate and Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

I think that my figures of men now say so much more about how a human feels than how he looks anatomically.

- Elisabeth Frink

Explore our grounds

You may also like

  1. Four sculptures with fedora, boater and trilby hats resting on top.
    Art Outdoors

    Damien Hirst: The Hat Makes the Man

    The Hat Makes the Man is based on a 1920 collage of the same name by the Surrealist artist Max Ernst. Hirst has made a sculpture version with bronze casts of wooden pallets, like a sculptural collage.
  2. A gilded gold sculpture of a human figure with the skin removed revealing the musculature, displayed inside a glass house with large bushes. The figure is holding a knife and scissors.
    Art Outdoors

    Damien Hirst: The Martyr – Saint Bartholomew

    The Martyr – Saint Bartholomew depicts the martyred saint who was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. In Hirst’s version he holds scissors and a scalpel to suggest that his torture is self-inflicted.
  3. Marialuisa Tadei, Octopus 2011. Courtesy the artist and YSP at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
    Art Outdoors

    Marialuisa Tadei: Octopus

    Octopus (Polipo) is formed of hand-cut, coloured glass tiles which are carefully pieced together over the concrete and steel structure. It is a key example of Tadei’s use of mosaic to elevate everyday forms into a more ethereal realm.
  4. A dark grey abstract sculpture next to a lake
    Art Outdoors

    Jørgen Haugen Sørensen: Supplement til Titlens Afskaffelse

    Supplement til Titlens Afskaffelse (Supplement to the Title’s Abolition) embodies Haugen Sørensen’s respect for and relationship with granite. After YSP organised his first solo exhibition in the UK in 1993, the artist developed a great interest in siting sculpture in the open air, enjoying the tough, uncompromising nature of granite, which is one of our hardest and most unyielding stones.