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

'Standing figure (1956-57) is the most naturalistic work of these years ... the figure reveals elements of mystery and mobility that no photograph can catch. The tautness of the back, tensed between arms and left leg, offers a framework to the soft forms of breasts and belly. It is a strange but not impossible pose, suggesting both an instant within a movement and a complete, self-sufficient pose; again one thinks of Degas, and of his animal women drying themselves after the bath or arranging their hair' (see N. Lynton, Kenneth Armitage, London, 1962, n.p.)