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Lot Essay
‘In my opinion, long and intense study of the human figure is the necessary foundation for a sculptor. The human figure is most complex and subtle and difficult to grasp in form and construction, and so it makes the most exacting form for study and comprehension.’
(Moore, quoted in A. Wilkinson, ed., Henry Moore: Writings and Conversations, Berkeley, 2002, p. 218).
Conceived in 1975, Reclining figure: Holes examines one of Henry Moore’s most fundamental artistic obsessions - the elegant forms of the human figure as it reclines in a languorous, recumbent position. Made up of gently undulating, sinuous rhythms, the sculpture elegantly balances volumetric richness with a contrasting sense of space and openness. The reclining figure had taken on a new significance for Moore in the 1940s following his experiences as a war artist in London during the Blitz, where he recorded the impact of the conflict on the city’s civilian population in a series of poignant drawings. The artist was particularly struck by the sleeping forms he encountered each night during his journeys through the city’s Underground network, where stations acted as temporary shelters during the opening months of the bombardment. These resting figures, who could be seen huddled together on the stations’ platforms in haphazard groups, greatly informed Moore’s artistic vision, leading the reclining human form to emerge as one of the most enduring motifs in his post-war work.
Another striking shift that occurred in Moore’s oeuvre in the aftermath of the Second World War was a new approach to materials. Whereas previously he had been an advocate for direct carving in stone or wood, from the 1940s onwards the artist worked primarily in terracotta, plaster and bronze. Bronze in particular proved a revelation for Moore, granting him greater flexibility in terms of formal experimentation and providing the artist with enough tensile strength to open out the figure in increasingly dynamic ways. In Reclining figure: Holes Moore uses the potential of this new material to full effect, tunnelling straight through the body, punctuating it with a series of dramatic holes. The resulting play of light and dark that occurs in response to these voids, lends the figure a sense of vitality and energy, as the eye is drawn into and through the human body.
(Moore, quoted in A. Wilkinson, ed., Henry Moore: Writings and Conversations, Berkeley, 2002, p. 218).
Conceived in 1975, Reclining figure: Holes examines one of Henry Moore’s most fundamental artistic obsessions - the elegant forms of the human figure as it reclines in a languorous, recumbent position. Made up of gently undulating, sinuous rhythms, the sculpture elegantly balances volumetric richness with a contrasting sense of space and openness. The reclining figure had taken on a new significance for Moore in the 1940s following his experiences as a war artist in London during the Blitz, where he recorded the impact of the conflict on the city’s civilian population in a series of poignant drawings. The artist was particularly struck by the sleeping forms he encountered each night during his journeys through the city’s Underground network, where stations acted as temporary shelters during the opening months of the bombardment. These resting figures, who could be seen huddled together on the stations’ platforms in haphazard groups, greatly informed Moore’s artistic vision, leading the reclining human form to emerge as one of the most enduring motifs in his post-war work.
Another striking shift that occurred in Moore’s oeuvre in the aftermath of the Second World War was a new approach to materials. Whereas previously he had been an advocate for direct carving in stone or wood, from the 1940s onwards the artist worked primarily in terracotta, plaster and bronze. Bronze in particular proved a revelation for Moore, granting him greater flexibility in terms of formal experimentation and providing the artist with enough tensile strength to open out the figure in increasingly dynamic ways. In Reclining figure: Holes Moore uses the potential of this new material to full effect, tunnelling straight through the body, punctuating it with a series of dramatic holes. The resulting play of light and dark that occurs in response to these voids, lends the figure a sense of vitality and energy, as the eye is drawn into and through the human body.