Andrew Litten 'The Human Shadow (The Animal Smile)'

ANDREW LITTEN 

THE HUMAN SHADOW (THE ANIMAL SMILE) 

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“Invisible threads are the strongest ties.” 

Friedrich Nietzsche 

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Andrew Litten 

The Human Shadow (The Animal Smile) 

‘The Human Shadow (The Animal Smile)’, 

Andrew Litten’s latest solo exhibition at 

Anima Mundi, has been created over the 

last three years, bringing together multiscale 

paintings with works on paper 

and original sculptures including a life 

size bronze. 

Litten ranks among the rule-benders. His 

paintings are unapologetically figurative 

but refuse to follow figurative convention. 

They sit on the fence between individual 

consciousness and objective reality: to 

borrow the title of one of his paintings, on a 

‘liminal stage’.” 

The raw, gestural, often visceral figuration 

that Litten is known for, is heightened 

and further nuanced by the expressive 

potential of working across various media. 

The art critic Laura Gasgoigne recently said 

“emotions are not just difficult to articulate 

in words; they are also impatient of the 

rules of art. To facilitate expression, rules 

must be bent and it is often the self-taught 

artists – Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, 

Francis Bacon - who dare to bend them. 

Building upon his last exhibition ‘Concerning 

The Fragile’ which was created prior to 

lockdown with particular focus towards the 

theme of human vulnerability; this exhibition 

arguably embodies wider ranging subject 

matter, further tonality and encourages 

broader complex and often contradictory 

emotive readings of human identity, hope, 

loss, disturbance and transience. 

This selection of works, continues the artists 

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exploration of existential human solitude 

through our innate capacity and desire to 

connect with, and also disconnect from, 

others and the world that we inhabit. As 

the exhibition title alludes, ‘The Human 

Shadow’ reflects upon territory that Litten 

is unafraid to explore; of a hidden or 

suppressed, perhaps darker or troubled 

element of human nature. However, 

notably ‘The Animal Smile’ refers to a deep 

rooted desire or absolute need to connect 

with nature in order to bring peace and 

balance to the psyche and healing through 

connection with the wider world, extending 

beyond the human. However, even this clear 

and relatively simple notion or objective 

becomes emotionally ambiguous as the 

anthropomorphic suggestion of an ‘animal 

smile’, suggests potential of a discordant 

empathetic reading that may speak more 

of continued disconnect than of union. Yet 

this is not the point - without whitewashing 

a modicum of pessimism, the exuding hope 

radiating within this body of work is sited in 

the recognition of a real desire to entwine 

with something ‘other’ beyond ’self’, no 

matter how difficult the achievement may 

be, it is this ‘desire’ that offers a bridge 

to something fuller. Litten addresses such 

contradictions without giving much away 

when he says “I think the art in this show has 

lots of little narratives to interpret.” As ever, 

with Andrew Litten, it is not about clearing up 

the confusion, but learning to live with it. The 

wider message, I think one of love, becomes 

greater than the sum of its parts. 

Joseph Clarke, 2023 

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Sequence of Destinations (Study for Returned) 

oil on board and frame, 46 x 30 cm 

previous page : Returned 

oil on canvas, 200 x 170 cm each (diptych) 

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Contained (Study for Returned) 

oil on board and frame, 42 x 35 cm 

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Returned 

mixed media on paper, 65 x 98 cm 

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Listening 

epoxy clay on wood base, 44 x 23 x 16 cm 

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Listening 

bronze (edition of 3), 145 x 63 x 80 cm 

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Boy & Horse 


previous page : Footprints 

oil on canvas, 180 x 120 cm / 160 x 120 cm (diptych) 

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Boy & Horse 

oil on canvas, 220 x 190 cm 

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Thinking of Flight 

epoxy clay, wood, paint, 29 x 16 x 13 cm 

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Interview with Andrew Litten and Lucy Cox 

LC: While in school, your interest in expressionist art led you to attend life-drawing classes. However, you 

eventually decided against pursuing art education further, finding it ‘restricting’ and ‘claustrophobic’ and 

instead embarked on a journey across Britain, searching for diverse subjects. For several years, you created 

art at home – on the kitchen table, in the attic, on the bedroom floor – rather than in an external studio, 

inspired by observing people’s everyday lives. Although at the time you probably didn’t anticipate where 

these experiences would lead, looking back, what impacts do you think they had on you? 

AL: Well, I think not continuing college was perhaps a mistake as I isolated myself too much. I don’t recommend it. 

I left art college early because I became tired of what I then perceived as an ego-driven environment which made 

me uncomfortable – but perhaps this was more of a personal issue. In the ‘90s, art schools seemed to have more of 

an anti-painting agenda. I wanted to retreat to my life before college where I felt excited by the world around me. At 

that time, I liked the idea of creating a body of figurative work in an impromptu way and not policing my thoughts. 

I used found-objects as surfaces to work on or assembled and connected with commonplace images. I created 

hundreds of works a year and am still discovering them in my parents’ loft when I visit! Emma (my wife) and I had 

children young, so I gave up on the idea of exhibiting art and just quietly created for about a decade in obscurity. 

LC: Could you expand on your idea of the studio as a ‘big sketchbook’ where you surround yourself with 

unfinished paintings, drawings, and other artists’ work? 

AL: Yes, I like the idea that my studio is a big sketchbook that I can move around in. It’s fun but serious. It’s the 

idea of being consumed by creativity. I am engaging mentally and physically; the representations are often life-size, 

so it becomes behavioural, too, as I am aware of my own body in relation to the work. I want the art I make to be 

charged with a current of connectivity and feel alive, like a mass of raw nerves. 

LC: How would you define your approach to representing the human body? You are very much a figurative 

artist. 

AL: My approach to the human body is to make the representation read emotionally. It is important that descriptive 

information is present, but without slowing the reading or jolting the flow of engagement. I suppose this sounds 

simple, but it takes time to work through a lot of visual information. Depth of emotion comes through consideration 

and reassessment of life experiences. To be properly visually emotive you have to take risks and be articulate 

embracing change. For me, the figure can radically change position or shape as the work evolves. I have to go with 

it and support the changes compositionally and anatomically. I think this is important if you want to really represent 

something in a tangible convincing way that is not just stylistic. The face is an essential element for me. We all 

intuitively read people’s faces to understand their thinking and essentially, we go for the eyes and mouth.I love the 

fact that the human body is the most powerful timeless model of expression and I enjoy the process of trying to find 

my own way within a genre that has historical weight behind it. 

LC: I think coping with instability is part of wanting to feel alive, which I sense is significant in your practice. 

It’s refreshing to see an artist examine the human condition so intimately in the digital age. Do you believe 

that your art mirrors yourself at times? 

AL: I hate it when people assume all my work is just about me! I know you weren’t absolutely meaning that though. 

I have just started my first large scale self-portrait, but I don’t generally want to just put myself at the centre of my 

creativity. I want to look outwards for widest emotive range and connections. The subjects are mainly based on 

people I know, so ideas are developed with their thoughts or stories as well as my own perceptions. I love the stress 

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this can put on art to mediate multi perceptions and conflicting input. I am there mirrored too; I suppose, but I think 

the reaching out is vital. I really like the idea that art can carry an energy of the longing to connect. 

LC: What are your habits? Do you have a daily routine? 

AL: I don’t think so. My studio is at home, so I pick up the creativity without effort. A predetermined technical 

approach bores me quickly; if I decide to do one thing, I usually start to see equal worth in doing the opposite. 

With this attitude, the subject becomes the driving force. I have no habits or routines in the studio. It’s best for me 

that its all pure exploratory creativity. 

I unsually work fast, but can sometimes take years to get them right and usually with dramatic changes as they are 

brought to life. As a figurative artist, I think the aim is to trick the mind into meaningful recognition. There is a huge 

difference between simply reading an image of something, as opposed to feeling engaged on a deeper sensory 

level when the mind properly connects. The artwork should be the focus of intensified activity where the fields of 

reference have been widened. It involves a high level of engagement for me. My works on paper are quicker which 

often offers a way into new ideas. 

My attitude is to engage in an unguarded way. Luckily, I am able to focus for long periods of time and I work the 

materials until it feels right - even if the results look wrong and unexpected, it must feel right. Its all very precarious 

and feels a bit mind bending at times. 

LC : Who are your biggest influences? 

AL: Well, life piles on experiences and influences. The young teenage me was very drawn to the gritty rigorous 

ethic of the School of London painters. It was meaningful and I loved the utter dedication of those artists to their 

life’s work. I realised age 16 that I could get from Aylesbury to Marylebone and visit Marlborough Fine Art easily. 

I became a bit obsessed with that gallery which at that time had solo shows of Auerbach after Rego after Bacon 

after Freud. I suppose it was also significant because as a teenager my mind was young and I was discovering 

important work in the flesh, which set me up to value an intimate one to one connection with art.Then when I was 

20, I spent a lot of time around Leicester area. The Leicester Museum collection of German Expressionist prints 

was extraordinary. The emotive articulacy and directness of those expressionist prints was a significant influence 

on what I wanted with my early work. 

I now think I would find it impossible to clearly say who my art influences are. There is so much historically. In terms 

of contemporary artist’s I tend to gravitate towards female art as it is typically more emotionally honest - Tracey 

Emin and Jenny Saville for instance. Louise Bourgeois is so important, and she reminds us that the artwork should 

always be more interesting than anything the artist says, and the art should be more complex in spirit, and physically 

diverse, than any one exhibition can contain. I love that feeling – that with a great artist - there is always more 

to be extract and interpreted. Van Gough is always interesting because no one can quite work him out. Confusion 

is interesting. Matisse impresses me because he could only be a kind person to have created the work he did. I say 

that because I’ve been recently thinking about a purity in art, so this occurred to me with Matisse and really moved 

me. So, overall, my art influences are all over the place and changeable. 

There are so many things that can spark an idea. It might be a film sequence, book or newspaper article that gives 

inspiration. Sometimes a conversation. It’s absolutely bizarre how regularly the spark that is needed just appears 

in an unexpected way. 

LC: You have repeatedly depicted dogs in your paintings which often appear calm or irate alongside male 

figures. When did you start using this motif? 

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AL: I started depicting animals in my very early work and they became part of the domestic humble aesthetic 

I was wanting. I also used to include taxidermy animal parts of birds in assemblages and had a lot of fun 

with that. 

When I later switched to life size figuration around 2010, the increase in intensity of my engagement was 

significant, physically, and psychologically. The animal references, I think, exist as an extension of the figurative 

identity, like a smaller compartmentalised state that co-exist with a different energy. It’s fascinating how 

animals use their senses in a different way to us, and I sometimes try to creatively suggest this swich in 

interpretation - like an alternative sensory stimulus to embody. I can’t particularly explain what I mean, now 

that I am trying to put it into words, but when I am creating, I can feel it, and it makes sense why the animals 

need to be there. 

Art has often represented animals to convey the natural world with a respect between humanity and nature. I 

think the line between us and animals is perhaps more in our imagination that we pretend. I also like the idea 

of using animal references in my art to represent wider anxieties of the uncomfortable animal instincts within 

us - group behaviour - wild freedom- only being partly civilised. In this way, animals are good for us to think 

with in art. 

LC: That’s a good way of putting it: animals as an extension of the figurative identity and a way to 

engage with art. Someone, I can’t quite remember whom, described Francis Bacon’s dog paintings as ‘the 

anguish of contemporary life’, which seems to resonate now, post-COVID. Looking at your animal works, 

I am reminded also of mythological hybrid creatures such as sphinxes: half human, half feline. In Greek 

mythology, it is said they symbolise mystery, enigma and brutality. 

AL: Yes, that brutality can be there. Lucas Cranach’s paintings of animals often have a curious blending beast 

and humanised qualities, particularly in his allegorical compositions. I love his painting Garden of Eden. His 

paintings are oddly primitive and sophisticated too, and I really respond to that. 

LC: It is interesting to see more of your sculpture. What is your approach to this medium in relationship 

to painting? 

AL: I have always made 3D work along with painting, but this used to be mainly assemblage. When I started 

focussing on large scale paintings, I began making models with clay to refer to. I like the way sculpting seems 

to use different areas of the brain. These sculptures are made as independent things but often relate to certain 

paintings. About 3 years ago I realised that casting in bronze can better reflect their intentions and with the 

support of Anima Mundi we made this happen. 

LC: What inspired the exhibition and why the title ‘The Human Shadow (The Animal Smile)’? 

AL: I wanted a title that was difficult to pin down. I like the disconnect it creates in the mind with space for interpretation. 

I wanted this exhibition to express energies and instincts that are at times unexpected, or defy logic. 

I had the idea of a shadow imprinted in our DNA, however putting it more into words is not want I want to do. 

As a side note - and I don’t want to go too far down the autobiographical route and explain everything from a 

personal perspective, but it is unavoidable fact that I have been grieving a significant loss. The re-balance and 

cognitive rewiring is profound for me at this stage. The need for a meaningful connect with nature, people and 

creativity is deeply felt. Grief has created a surge of opened vision. This exhibition is unavoidably an expression 

of this, and it is, I believe, positive in outlook. But of course, an emotional connect can be complex, confused 

or frustrated so I also want the art to speak this language of longing. 

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Man with Birds 


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Boy With Twig 


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Father & Child 

epoxy clay on wood base, 66 x 19 x 37 cm 

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Mother With First Child 


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Mother With First Child 


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With Her Cat 


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Frightened Cat 

epoxy clay, wire, paint, hair on wood base, 40 x 32 x 17 cm 

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Gathering 


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True Nature (Lie) 


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True Nature (Lie) 


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Nurture 


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Nurture 


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This Heavy Shadow Day 


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This Heavy Shadow Day (Nothing Matters) 


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Man Mask 


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Discredited 


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Existing Together 


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Changing Places 


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Liminal Stage 


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Waving 

epoxy clay, wood, paint, 50 x 24 x 17 cm 

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Biography 

Andrew Litten’s dynamic and gestural figurative artworks express a strong interest in the 

universal complexity of everyday existence. Dealing with humanistic themes such as love, 

sensuality, fear, anger, loss, nostalgia, mundanity, personal growth and perceived identity 

normality or disturbance. Works are created with an unguarded, empathetic attitude, like 

so many expressionistic artists, a rawness of approach combined with an often viscous 

application of paint is also key to the extreme experience felt from the work. Gesture 

and nuance inspire extreme emotive reading, perhaps subversive, tender, passionate, 

ambivalent, malevolent or compassionate, our response becomes one of allure or repulsion. 

Andrew Litten is a British artist, born in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire in 1970. He currently 

works from his studio in Fowey, Cornwall. He is a self-taught artist leaving art college as a 

teenager having found it to be too restrictive to his aspired method of working. For a decade 

he created mostly small-scale works using humble domestic or found materials (including 

envelopes and assembled furniture parts). The work made at this time deliberately 

challenged ideas of art elitism and art as commodity. He then moved to Cornwall in 2001 

and chose to begin exhibiting. Early success came when his work was included in an 

exhibition titled ‘Nudes’ in New York City, (along with Jacob Epstein and Pierre-Auguste 

Renoir), where his work was highlighted and reviewed by the New York Times. Shortly 

after he had four consecutive solo exhibitions each of which included publications at 

Goldfish Fine Arts in Penzance, Cornwall. Other notable exhibitions included ‘Move’ at 

Vyner Street, London, during Frieze Art Week 2007, where his work ‘Dog Breeder’, created 

as a twisted and emphatic anti-art statement, was exhibited. He was also included in 

‘No Soul For Sale’ at Tate Modern Turbine Hall, London in 2010. In 2012 he held a major 

solo exhibition at Millennium in St Ives, Cornwall and that year was given a guest solo 

exhibition at L13 Light Industrial Workshop, London. He has also held large-scale solo 

exhibitions at Spike Island and Motorcade FlashParade in Bristol. Ordinary Bodies, Ordinary 

Bones was conceived with support from The Arts Council, UK and will be exhibited at 

Anima Mundi in 2018. Works have been included in numerous international curated mixed 

exhibitions in Berlin, Dublin, Siena, Milwaukee, Canberra, Watou and New York City and 

in Venice during the 54th Biennale. Most recently paintings have been exhibited in four 

major museums in China and Poland National Museum. Andrew Litten paintings feature in 

numerous international private and public collections. He is represented by Anima Mundi. 

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Published by Anima Mundi to coincide with Andrew Litten ‘The Human Shadow (The Animal Smile)’ 

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or 

by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publishers 

Anima Mundi . Street-an-Pol . St. Ives . Cornwall . +44 (0)1736 793121 . mail@animamundigallery.com . www.animamundigallery.com 

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“We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface 

but connected in the deep.” 

William James 

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www.animamundigallery.com 

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Andrew Litten 'The Human Shadow (The Animal Smile)'

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