We lose the juxtaposition of poor against rich and settle in a no man's land of figures, studies and linguistic relief that frees us from facing a rather ugly reality: poverty exists in Britain.
The figures studied by Stern influenced key figures in contemporary white nationalism, a fact which should lead us to ask why their ideas continue to have such staying power more than a century later.
The exhibition features meditations on abstraction and the figurative such as Shikeith's Untitled (Figure Study), Di-Ay Battad's Estranged Landscape: Lake Pod, Devan Shimoyama's Shadow, Lisa Marie Jakab's Pigeonhole Perforated, and Seth LeDonne's Your Cot Dream.
Its companion piece, Figure Study I, hangs in the Scottish National Gallery.
Also to the curator's credit, the choices range far beyond conventional portraiture and figure study.
They range from traditional academic figure study to manipulated photography, with a little magic realism thrown in for good measure.
The work is a single-figure study, in which the cards, at first glance, seem mere quick smudges; but look closely.
David Sheard, leader of the council, said the painting, Figure Study II, had languished in storage for years as it was too valuable to be exhibited locally.
Surveying a roughly 25-year period, from the late 1950's through the early 1980's, this selection of Ms. Holliday's work focuses on portraiture and figure study.
It contains a muscular figure study here, a still life there.
