[MSN] Elisabeth Frink's Desert Quartet is listed at Grade II*

[Museum Security Network Mailing list]

Press release from:

The Public Monuments and Sculpture Association
&
The Twentieth Century Society

Date: 11th May 2007
Heads bust all listing records
for public sculpture

Elisabeth Frink's Desert Quartet is listed at Grade II*

The Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) has today taken the historic step of listing a public sculpture less than thirty years old. The precedent – set by the listing at Grade II* at Worthing of Elisabeth Frinks masterly Desert Quartet – will protect one of England’s finest public sculptures.  The series of four bronze heads occupies a loggia at Worthing's post-modern Montague shopping centre.

The campaign was backed by leading figures from the art world including Nicholas Serota, Sir Christopher Frayling, Loyd Grossman, and Lord Palumbo who unveiled the sculpture on that site.

Desert Quartet was specially commissioned from the internationally acclaimed sculptor Dame Elisabeth Frink in 1985 and was installed in 1989.  The work consists of four giant heads which overlook Liverpool Gardens, not far from the seafront in Worthing.  It was initially derided locally – known by local teenagers as 'the goggle heads' – then the Worthing Society campaigned for their retention, bringing in the national organisations.  Supported by the local media, local people enthusiastically backed the campaign. A petition launched at the weekend attracted 400 local signatures including the Trafalgar Square Fourth Plinth model, the paraplegic Alison Lapper (herself a sculptor), and members of Worthing Borough Council. 

The developer of the shopping centre was to plan removal of the sculptures, only 18 years after providing them as a condition of attaining planning permission for its construction.  They have an estimated current value of approx £2 million.

The listing decision was made on the advice of  English Heritage. It sets a vital benchmark for the future and sends a clear message to developers and planning departments about the importance of public art. 

C20 Director, Catherine Croft says:
'It is great that this important sculpture is now protected and the heads will continue to gaze out over Worthing.  The original intention was that they should be a perm-anent fixture for the benefit of the public, and listing should ensure that the local public and visitors can continue to be able to enjoy them'.

 Loyd Grossman, Chairman of the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association, says:
' In listing Grade II* Worthing’s Desert Quartet – one of the most important post- war works of public art in Britain – English Heritage has ensured the preservation of Elizabeth Frink’s series of bronze heads, especially commissioned for the town's Montague Centre in 1985.  These powerful portraits represent the best sculpture put up for public view.  The listing reaffirms the belief, shared by the Twentieth Century Society and the PMSA, that Art beyond the gallery is for everyone.   

Jo Darke (Director, the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association) says:
‘This approval is of crucial importance to public sculpture, firstly in acknowledging that rare and deserving cases like this can circumvent the 30-Year Rule, and also in the unprecedented decision to List an unremarkable building for the sake of its remarkable sculptures’. 

The C20 Society and the PMSA hope that this decision will underwrite and extend the PMSA's online survey of public sculpture in Britain (65% complete), allowing inclusion of all the UK’s public art, murals and sculpture.  A discreet section for cataloguing public sculpture theft is currently planned. Many excellent pieces are already under threat, from Dorothy Annan’s purpose-made murals for BT in the City of London (1960), to the relief sculpture Healing Hands by Albert Pountney (1954) on Leicester Royal Infirmary, threatened with demolition. This decision is a major advance in the battle to preserve these and others of the same calibre.

Contacts –
Jo Darke – PMSA – 0207 485 0566 / 07968 256 120
Catherine Croft – C20 Society – 0207 250 3857 – director at c20society.org.uk
Jon Wright – C20 Society  - 0207 250 3857 – jon.wright at c20society.org.uk
Natalie Cropper – Secretary, The Worthing Society – 01903 241 949
Ted Kennard – The Worthing Society – Broadwater30 at yahoo.co.uk

For further images please contact jon.wright at c20society.org.uk

Notes to Editors –

1. Biographical notes on Dame Elisabeth Frink
Dame Elisabeth Frink (1930 – 1993), is rated one of England’s finest sculptors of the period. Often linked to the Post-war school of British sculpture, which included Reg Butler and Eduardo Paolozzi, her work is distinguished by a commitment to natural forms and themes.  She was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1982.

2. Notes on C20
The Twentieth Century Society, founded in 1979 as the Thirties Society, is the national amenity body that fights to safeguard the best of architecture and design in Britain from 1914 onwards. 

3. Notes on the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (PMSA)
The PMSA was established in 1991 (founding patron, Sir Eduardo Paolozzi) for the protection and promotion of public sculpture.  Its main campaigns are the National Recording Project, a survey of public sculpture in Britain (65% completed), and the Save our Sculpture project which actively supports protection of neighbourhood sculpture by local residents.   See website for more information: www.pmsa.org.uk