Footnotes

Provenance
The Artist's Estate

Exhibited
London, Browse & Darby, Euan Uglow, 18 May-25 June 1983, cat.no.14 (ill.b&w)

Literature
Catherine Lampert, Euan Uglow, The Complete Paintings, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2007, p.142, cat.no.296 (col.ill)

Striding Nude, Blue Dress is the second in a series of four commanding variations on the theme of the striding figures in profile which occupied the artist's conscience for the best part of a decade. Each of the four works in the series contemplates, through Uglow's unflinching language of solid geometry, the dilemma of conveying movement within the stationary medium of paint on canvas. Amongst his most valued studio possessions Uglow had a number of photographs of Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase, No.1 (1911, Philadelphia Museum of Modern Art). Uglow had sympathy with Duchamp's analytical approach, stating that Nude Descending a Staircase was primarily a device for 'trapping movement'. In Striding Nude, Blue Dress, Uglow poses the model in such a way that her weight fluxes between rear and fore foot, her arms and head protrude slightly forward whilst her shoulders remain pulled back. Her movement, like Duchamp's Nude, is eternally 'trapped' upon the canvas.

Arguably a second important point of reference for the striding nude series is Alberto Giacometti's 1932 sculpture Walking Woman (acquired by the Tate Gallery in 1972). Uglow had first met Giacometti in Paris in 1957, on the introduction of David Sylvester, and would do so again on four or five occasions, always retaining a particular fondness for Walking Woman. Indeed, an admiration of sculpture in general both modern and historic (notably the Ancient Egyptian and Greek stone carvings) underpins much of Uglows output. It is unsurprising that in the present work the figure's form commands the black void in such an effective sculptural fashion. This is further emphasised by the employment of a fixed point of view; Uglow stipulated that the work should be viewed so that the eye is level with the curve of the orange structure at the right of the composition. As such we gaze up at the model's neck and head and down at her feet inducing a viewing experience of awe.

The first of the four works on the theme, Striding Figure (1975, Private Collection), shows the figure facing to the right of the composition. As with the present oil, this work was abandoned due to the inability of the model to continue with the demanding rigours of Uglow's sitting schedule (the present work was executed over two years; the artist would often require models to sit for extended periods of up to five times a week). However, the strokes within these unfinished works; the visible residue of Uglow's process, reveal almost as much about the artist's practice as many of his completed works contribute. Having struck upon a successful composition with Striding Nude, Blue Dress, Uglow immediately embarked on a second version, completed in 1981. The final of the four striding profile compositions is Zagi (1981-82), the work was purchased by the Tate gallery in 1982. In this final oil the figure, framed within the same environment, has taken a full step forward through the motion and has raised her arms to form an acrobatic movement.