Kenneth Armitage, R.A. (1916-2002)

Discussing his work from the late 1950 period, the artist commented, 'for the first time I began to be aware of relating sculpture to the ground; isolated in rooms in galleries and in people's homes, sculptures seem to have no bearing on the ground or gravity. The natural thing for me with sculpture is to be very conscious of the vertical and the horizontal, and I very often had in mind a three-dimensional cross. Figure lying on its Side [in five versions, 1957] were pronounced lines made by the limbs, reduced almost to sticks. Sprawling Woman, 1957, was a female figure lying on her back, with a very arched back; her arms and legs were spread out, but there was a pronounced horizontal line' (op. cit., p. 44).