Standing man

E. Lucie-Smith (op. cit., p. 11) comments on the present work: 'Throughout the second half of Elisabeth Frink's career, one of her chief sculptural preoccupations was the male nude, which she portrayed in many guises - standing, walking, running, occasionally seated. The nudes were used to convey contrasting, some might say, contradictory, ideas and emotions. Sometimes Frink seemed to criticise male brutality and phallocractic power: her sculptures became emblems of these qualities. More often, her attitudes towards the male are admiring. She celebrated natural man, unashamed of nudity and at ease with his own body. Perhaps because World War II coincided with her adolescence, she had a particular interest in the idea of man as warrior. In Standing Man the notion that the figure is essentially military was conveyed, not by the use of anecdotal detail, but through a combination of gesture and stance. He stands in the at-ease position, bit with hands clasped behind his back, like an officer insprecting his troops'.
This work, together with Walking Man and Running Man from 1986, were commissioned by W.H. Smith for their company headquarters at Swindon, Wiltshire.