Standing Figure (blue)

Released in combination with his coffee table book, published in 2015, Standing Figure features a lone stickman: a common motif in the Stik oeuvre. The image recalls The Big Issue, but here the lines are thicker, shorter and the eyes are wider. While similar images are revisited repeatedly by Stik, there is constant development in his practice, in line with the changing urban milieu which is often the setting for his work. This is an idea explored in his exhibition and print series entitled Walk.

Standing Figure is a remarkable example of Stik’s compression of the complexities of the human frame into a  drawing composed of six lines. Its inclusion as a pull-out in his retrospective book is  particularly apt as testament to the origins of his practice. He has noted that “when I started painting in the street I soon found out that using just six lines and two dots was the quickest way to paint a human figure”. The primarily practical reasoning for his signature style makes its singularly rich communication of feelings of isolation and hopelessness no less potent.