The human body has been at the core of sculpture’s creativity since the Ice Age, so it is no surprise to find from these two new scholarly volumes from Lund Humphries that it was also at the heart of both Charles Wheeler’s and Elisabeth Frink’s work. The Sculpture of Charles Wheeler is the latest in the ‘British Sculptors and Sculpture’ series, which has done so much to raise public awareness of the rich diversity of British sculpture of the last century and a quarter. 

Wheeler’s and Frink’s creative years overlapped by a couple of decades, but stylistically their work and general aesthetic are poles apart. Wheeler (1892–1974) was a product of the late Arts and Crafts movement – as much artisan-craftsman as sculptor – while Frink (1930–93), whose childhood memories were of war and