More Moore

MORE MOORE

Henry Moore (1898-1986) is among the most influential sculptors of Modernism. He advanced abstract figurative sculpture without entirely abandoning naturalistic representation. Among the pioneer abstract sculptors of Modernism, he cultivated his own original style to monumental effect.

An early and lasting influence on Moore dates from his six-month traveling scholarship to Northern Italy and side trip to Paris. Impressed by the Mesoamerican chac-mool at the Trocadero, he made abstract variations on the reclining figure a major and lifetime motif of his art.

Reclining Figure (1929), carved from Hornton Stone, is possibly the earliest finished example.

Recumbent Figure (1938), also sculpted from Hornton Stone, was commissioned by the architect Serge Chermayeff. This piece demonstrates Moore’s mature style, which he basically maintained for the rest of his career.

Moore used as a guide to fashioning the full-size version a small-scale clay model that has since been lost. Three lead and nine bronze casts were made of the clay original. Shown here is one of the bronze casts. Recognizably a human figure, it is at the same time a continuous biomorphic mass of abstract, sinuous shapes flowing together.

Recumbent Figure (1938)

Three Points (1939-40) is a good example of a purely abstract piece. Moore calls our attention to the three points “where things are just about to touch but don’t,” comparing the triple near convergence to the gap in a spark plug across which the electric charge has to jump. Moore isn’t portraying some sort of spark plug, in case anyone fancies themselves clever enough to suggest it.

Three Points (1939-40)

Moore’s sculpture was inspired not only by human figures but also by animal forms, of which Animal Head (1951) is a good example. Molded in white plaster, it evokes the blanched skull of some dead mammal. Abstract, figurative, and biomorphic, it is typically Moore. Based on this piece at least one bronze cast exists. Curiously, Moore cast in 1964 Headless Animal (1960), which can stand as a complementary piece.

Animal Head, white plaster (1951)

In Large Torso Arch (1962-63), Moore moves toward a high degree of abstraction but does not entirely abandon figurative representation. The piece suggests an excavated male torso. Bulky, even muscular, it masses boldly, shearing with force.

Large Torso Arch (1962-63)

Double Oval (1966) is purely abstract, inspired perhaps by the shape of the human ear or some other curvaceous form. It is original, monumental, and dramatic. Duplicating this unusual topology sidewise, Moore renders the undivided piece doubly intriguing. 

Double Oval (1966)

Oval with Points (1968-70) looks like a play on Moore’s earlier motifs—two nearly convergent points, a single massive oval. Purely abstract, the piece suggests poise and finesse joined to power held in check. It looks like a trendy doughnut.

Oval with Points (1968-70)

In Three Forms: Vertebrae (1969) Moore creates an abstract sculpture based on vertebrae—whether they are human, animal, or both, we aren’t quite sure. As if playing to the camera, they sit like ancient Chinese oracle bones, motionless and enigmatic.

Critics have remarked that Moore’s humanistic vision is implied in the unity of his organic forms flowing into the natural landscape.

Three Forms: Vertebrae (1969)

Slender and shapely, curvaceous, Working Model for Two-Piece Reclining Figure: Cut (1978-79) is notably voluptuous. It is an implicitly female figure, not massing or excavating aggressively like most of his preceding work.

As the title of the work indicates, it consists of two pieces or what looks like a single figure cut into two parts along the approximate location of the thigh. 

Highly imaginative and plastic, it is one of his last pieces. Moore passed away in 1986.

Working Model for Two-Piece Reclining Figure: Cut (1978-79)