Figure on a Box

An extremely rare early sculpture, Figure on a Box presents Blake's fascination with objects - be they found, gifted or bought. Celebrated primarily for his draughtsmanship, Blake is best known for his meticulous paintings, drawings and prints which often focus upon every-day objects, reflecting the 1960s focus upon consumerism. However, as early as 1959, Blake made three-dimensional collages which had a sculptural appeal. Made from found objects – in a manner much like Duchamp, these works included a clothes locker painted RAF blue and decorated with a collage of pin-up girls, film stars and musicians. Locker was first exhibited at the ICA in 1960 along with Pair of Painted Shoes, 1959, a pair of shoe-trees, without the heel element, that had been painted in the fashion of two-tone brogues.

Standing Figure is constructed from a wooden box, bricks and pieces of wood. More sculptural than his other found three-dimensional collages, the box is painted in a shade of British racing green, with the diagonally striped red, white and blue referencing a Union Jack. The man or woman who stands upon the box is an ultimate distillation of form, only giving a sense of life through a single bended knee. Produced in a naïve manner of building blocks found in a nursery, the present sculpture is described as having a ‘quality of play resembling the most simple figures made by children as well as those produced by certain primitives’ (see exhibition catalogue, Peter Blake, London, Tate Gallery, 1983, p. 109).