Figure in Space 1962 - 1963

Curator: Reg Butler's "Figure in Space" has this looming quality, doesn't it? All dark charcoal and sharp lines. Editor: It does feel oppressive, almost as if this figure is caged or pinned. The texture is so raw, like charcoal dust trying to escape. Curator: The Tate tells us he was aiming to distill the essence of human presence... Editor: Yet it’s so…abstracted, almost violent. What is he trying to tell us about the body, about imprisonment perhaps? Those lines evoke a sense of constraint, even torture. Curator: Maybe, maybe. Or maybe Butler just wanted to capture the way we feel sometimes – heavy, grounded, but yearning to float away. Editor: Perhaps it’s both. That tension is what makes the image so gripping. Curator: I see that. A bit of both then, haunting and freeing.