Dame Elisabeth Frink, R.A. (1930-1993)

Frink comments on the development of the Goggle Head series, 'The soldiers' heads were started in 1964 in England and led on to the goggle heads, which were the reflection of my feelings about the Algerian War and the Moroccan strongmen. One, called Oufkir, was held largely responsible for the death of the Algerian freedom fighter Ben Barka. Oufkir had an extraordinarily sinister face - always in dark glasses. These goggle heads became for me a symbol of evil and destruction in North Africa and, in the end, everywhere else' (see exhibition catalogue, Elisabeth Frink, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., 1990, p. 53). The 'mirror glasses' in the present work were patinated to a high shine to express the inscrutability of Oufkir.