In the early 1960s, Golding moved away from figurative painting. This is one of his earliest abstract works, though Golding sees it as a continuation of the earlier, representational style. It is clearly ‘about’ something – forms, colours, overlapping and texture – but the identity of the form is no longer clear cut. Golding has stated: "I realised that in my work I was somewhat desperately trying to find a compromise between a male and a female body… When I realised what I was doing I turned my back on this because I am not interested in art as self-discovery or as therapy. Hence, probably, the move to a 'purer', hard-edged art."