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Lot Essay
In 1955, Moore was commissioned to complete a large-scale sculpture for the Olivetti Building in Milan. The artist considered that the low horizontal format of the building would be balanced by an upright form, rather than the reclining figures that he had been concentrating on.
'A lone Lombardy growing behind the building convinced me that a vertical work would act as the correct counterfoil to the horizontal rhythm of the building ... I started by balancing different forms one above the other - with results rather like North American totem poles - but as I continued the attempt gained more unity and also perhaps became more organic' (see H. Moore, quoted in P. James, (ed.), Henry Moore on Sculpture, London, 1966, p. 253).
This idea led to a series of Upright Motives, and although the original project was never installed as the commission did not progress, it had inspired Moore to develop the theme in a number of maquettes and sculptures that ensued. Moore began to press natural objects into the clay moulds for the maquettes that he produced, and
the resulting sculptures have an organic quality in which Moore luxuriates in the rich, textural surface of the bronze.
Alan Bowness in his introduction to the complete catalogue of Moore's sculpture, remarks that, 'It would not be appropriate in an introduction to a particular phase of an artist's work to make any generalisations about his work as a whole. It should be noted, however, that Moore's inventiveness has never flagged - there are motives in this period, such as Upright Motives of 1955-6 ... the Square Head and above all the Three Part Object both of the same year, which are as powerful and sinister as anything yet created by the sculptor. We may say of this latest phase that it plunges deeper than ever before into the unconscious levels of the psyche and, as Neumann suggests, by doing so Moore creates at the same time a new form of sculpture' (see A. Bowness, op. cit., p. 7).
Casts of Three Part Object are in the collection of Kansas City Sculpture Park, USA; Odori Park, Japan; and Tate, London.
'A lone Lombardy growing behind the building convinced me that a vertical work would act as the correct counterfoil to the horizontal rhythm of the building ... I started by balancing different forms one above the other - with results rather like North American totem poles - but as I continued the attempt gained more unity and also perhaps became more organic' (see H. Moore, quoted in P. James, (ed.), Henry Moore on Sculpture, London, 1966, p. 253).
This idea led to a series of Upright Motives, and although the original project was never installed as the commission did not progress, it had inspired Moore to develop the theme in a number of maquettes and sculptures that ensued. Moore began to press natural objects into the clay moulds for the maquettes that he produced, and
the resulting sculptures have an organic quality in which Moore luxuriates in the rich, textural surface of the bronze.
Alan Bowness in his introduction to the complete catalogue of Moore's sculpture, remarks that, 'It would not be appropriate in an introduction to a particular phase of an artist's work to make any generalisations about his work as a whole. It should be noted, however, that Moore's inventiveness has never flagged - there are motives in this period, such as Upright Motives of 1955-6 ... the Square Head and above all the Three Part Object both of the same year, which are as powerful and sinister as anything yet created by the sculptor. We may say of this latest phase that it plunges deeper than ever before into the unconscious levels of the psyche and, as Neumann suggests, by doing so Moore creates at the same time a new form of sculpture' (see A. Bowness, op. cit., p. 7).
Casts of Three Part Object are in the collection of Kansas City Sculpture Park, USA; Odori Park, Japan; and Tate, London.