Henry Moore: Three Piece Reclining Figure No.1
Art Outdoors /Henry Moore: Three Piece Reclining Figure No.1
Three Piece Reclining Figure No.1 reveals the extent to which the bones and other natural objects that Moore collected influenced his works, with one section of this sculpture drawn directly from an animal vertebra. As the artist suggests in this quote, although the three forms are physically disconnected, there is an irresistible relationship between them. The figure is heavily abstracted as well as being fragmented, with the ‘head’, for example, being barely a suggestion.
The sculpture’s surface is heavily textured and suggestive of a rock’s surface, so the body can also be read as a landscape, something that is especially relevant in its current position. Not only is the hillside beyond as backdrop to the sculpture, but it is also seen through the voids in its three sections.
The middle piece was suggested by a vertebra – of I don’t know what animal it was – that I found in the garden. And the connection of one piece to another is the kind of connection that a backbone will have with one section through to the next section. But they’ve been separated. It’s as though you’ve left the slipped disc out of them, but it’s there.
- Henry Moore
You might also like
- News
YSP recognised as ‘gold’ winners in Visit England Awards
26 October 2022 - Art Outdoors
James Turrell: Deer Shelter Skyspace
The Deer Shelter Skyspace creates a place of contemplation and revelation, harnessing the changing light of the Yorkshire sky. It allows us to take time to sit, to think, and to contemplate; an open invitation to access a peacefulness that is often denied in our busy lives that abound with technology and speed. - Art Outdoors
Henry Moore: Large Totem Head
This sculpture is enlarged from a much smaller work made five years previously called Head: Boat Form and the resemblance to a hollowed-out boat remains clear. However, unlike that sculpture, which sat horizontally, Large Totem Head is raised to a standing form, assuming the totem-like presence of its title. - Art Outdoors
Jonathan Borofsky: Molecule Man 1+1+1