Manuel Neri, king of plaster, and top sculptor of the skinny girls’ club. Untitled (Standing Figure) is a colorful example of the artist's ability to take the influence of sculptors of the past and sprinkle in some modernist expressionism.

Neri was heavily influenced by Classical Greek and Roman Art and because ceramic and plaster are notoriously fragile, in his later years, he began to cast his sculptures in bronze and then paint the figures with lively colors - a modernist take on the ancient classics. This artwork is classic Neri in that it is an abstract representation of a figure—the sculpture is headless and ambiguous. Classical Greek and Roman art was not the only inspiration for Neri. He has been compared to Auguste Rodin as they share an obsession with the female body. Both artists approached sculpture as a painter might approach a blank canvas, successfully avoiding the inherent rigidity of the material.

Neri was fascinated by peoples’ body language and how it influenced their behavior and feelings. To him, the figure was a direct representation of creative expression. Although he was criticized by the Guerilla Girls in in the '90s for objectifying the female body, Neri responded that any negative critic of his work said more about how the individual felt about their own bodies, not the artwork itself: “‘But I see these things, if they are attacks on the figure, as self-inflicted. What we do to ourselves. How we see ourselves.’” 

Regardless of its inherent ambiguity, Neri's work is instilled with a a deep intimacy and vulnerability. It’s as if we creep up to the sculpture, unannounced. His model of over thirty years, Mary Julia Klimenko, would often read poetry to him during their sessions, reinforcing this captured feeling of intimacy between the artist and his muse.