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拍品专文
Filled with a rich, internal energy, Working Model for Two Piece Reclining Figure: Points displays Henry Moore’s longstanding preoccupation with the abstract anthropomorphic possibilities of the split reclining figure. The most dramatic aspect of this sculpture, of course, is that it has been cut into two pieces, the space between the sections carefully calculated by the artist to generate a tension that simultaneously divides and ties the two groupings together, achieving a perfect equilibrium between solidity and weightlessness. Taking advantage of the innumerable visual possibilities of the multi-part composition, Moore generates an enhanced, dynamic and more varied viewing experience, as the character of the sculpture shifts and changes according to the angle from which it is considered.
Although Moore created multi-piece compositions in modest table-top dimensions during the 1930s, the practice became more prevalent in his oeuvre following the creation of Two-Piece Reclining Figure No. 1 (LH 457). Writing of this work, Moore explained the ways in which it represented an expansion of his vision: ‘I don't think it was a conscious or intentional thing for me to break up the figures in this way ... I did the first one in pieces almost without intending to. But after I had done it, then the second one became a conscious idea. I realised what an advantage a separated two-piece composition could have in relating figures to landscape. Knees and breasts are mountains. Once these two parts become separated, you don’t expect a naturalistic figure; therefore you can justifiably make it like a landscape or rock’ (H. Moore quoted in A. Wilkinson (ed.), Henry Moore Writings and Conversations, Berkeley, 2002, pp. 287-288).
The success of this experiment soon suggested further possibilities – Moore created a number of two-piece figures, and during the 1960s and 70s, expanded upon this theme to develop three-piece and four-piece works as well. The rolling, biomorphic curves and rhythmic undulations of the figural forms in Two Piece Reclining Figure: Points demonstrate Moore’s continued interest in this link between his sculpture and the organic, natural contours of the landscape. Indeed, from certain viewpoints the shapes, hollows, and textured surface of the forms resemble rocks and rolling hills, or a cave in the side of a coastal cliff. As Moore explained, ‘I think, rather, that in the image of the human body one can also express something nonhuman – landscape, for instance – in exactly the same way as we live over again mountains and valleys in our bodily sensations. Or think of the basic poetic element in metaphor: there too we express one thing in the image of another. It seems to me that I can say more about the world as a whole by means of such poetic interpenetrations than I could with the human figure alone’ (H. Moore quoted in S. Compton, exhibition catalogue, Henry Moore, London, Royal Academy, 1988, p. 259).
In Two Piece Reclining Figure: Points, Moore carries the theme of division to new expressive heights, elongating two segments so that they appear to reach towards one another across the void, stopping just short of actually touching, leaving the space between filled by an almost palpable charge of electricity. It appears to have been this energy, this atmosphere of suspense as we anticipate the meeting of the two points, that Moore aimed to capture in this work, as he searched for novel ways in which to expand his sculptural vision. The artist had first explored the motif of pointed elements almost touching in a sketch from 1938, which was followed by a series of drawings in which he developed and expanded on the idea, proposing a myriad of subtle variations of mass and spacing as he sought to reach the perfect form. These explorations resulted almost immediately in Moore’s enigmatic sculpture Three Points, 1939-1940, but he would not return to the concept until the late 1960s, producing works such as Oval with Points, 1968-69, and the present work.
While a variety of sources have been suggested as the inspiration for Moore’s artistic obsession with such pointed forms, from the structure of a spark plug to details from Picasso’s Guernica, Surrealist art to the carvings from New Guinea, the artist himself linked the motif back to two sixteenth-century artworks – the enigmatic painting Gabrielle d’Estrées et une de ses soeurs, by an anonymous member of the Fontainebleau School, and Michelangelo Bunarotti’s The Creation of Adam, in the frescoed ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Moore spoke openly of his admiration for Michelangelo’s work, stating in 1964 that even in his youth ‘I still knew that as an individual he was an absolute superman. Even before I became a student I’d taken a peculiar obsessive interest in him’ (H. Moore quoted in D. Sylvester, ‘The Michelangelo Vision’, Sunday Times Magazine, 16 February 1964, in ibid.) Capturing the same sense of electric tension between two elements as they reach out towards one another, Working Model for Two Piece Reclining Figure: Points channels this highly-charged atmosphere, integrating the empty void into the composition in a novel way.
Although Moore created multi-piece compositions in modest table-top dimensions during the 1930s, the practice became more prevalent in his oeuvre following the creation of Two-Piece Reclining Figure No. 1 (LH 457). Writing of this work, Moore explained the ways in which it represented an expansion of his vision: ‘I don't think it was a conscious or intentional thing for me to break up the figures in this way ... I did the first one in pieces almost without intending to. But after I had done it, then the second one became a conscious idea. I realised what an advantage a separated two-piece composition could have in relating figures to landscape. Knees and breasts are mountains. Once these two parts become separated, you don’t expect a naturalistic figure; therefore you can justifiably make it like a landscape or rock’ (H. Moore quoted in A. Wilkinson (ed.), Henry Moore Writings and Conversations, Berkeley, 2002, pp. 287-288).
The success of this experiment soon suggested further possibilities – Moore created a number of two-piece figures, and during the 1960s and 70s, expanded upon this theme to develop three-piece and four-piece works as well. The rolling, biomorphic curves and rhythmic undulations of the figural forms in Two Piece Reclining Figure: Points demonstrate Moore’s continued interest in this link between his sculpture and the organic, natural contours of the landscape. Indeed, from certain viewpoints the shapes, hollows, and textured surface of the forms resemble rocks and rolling hills, or a cave in the side of a coastal cliff. As Moore explained, ‘I think, rather, that in the image of the human body one can also express something nonhuman – landscape, for instance – in exactly the same way as we live over again mountains and valleys in our bodily sensations. Or think of the basic poetic element in metaphor: there too we express one thing in the image of another. It seems to me that I can say more about the world as a whole by means of such poetic interpenetrations than I could with the human figure alone’ (H. Moore quoted in S. Compton, exhibition catalogue, Henry Moore, London, Royal Academy, 1988, p. 259).
In Two Piece Reclining Figure: Points, Moore carries the theme of division to new expressive heights, elongating two segments so that they appear to reach towards one another across the void, stopping just short of actually touching, leaving the space between filled by an almost palpable charge of electricity. It appears to have been this energy, this atmosphere of suspense as we anticipate the meeting of the two points, that Moore aimed to capture in this work, as he searched for novel ways in which to expand his sculptural vision. The artist had first explored the motif of pointed elements almost touching in a sketch from 1938, which was followed by a series of drawings in which he developed and expanded on the idea, proposing a myriad of subtle variations of mass and spacing as he sought to reach the perfect form. These explorations resulted almost immediately in Moore’s enigmatic sculpture Three Points, 1939-1940, but he would not return to the concept until the late 1960s, producing works such as Oval with Points, 1968-69, and the present work.
While a variety of sources have been suggested as the inspiration for Moore’s artistic obsession with such pointed forms, from the structure of a spark plug to details from Picasso’s Guernica, Surrealist art to the carvings from New Guinea, the artist himself linked the motif back to two sixteenth-century artworks – the enigmatic painting Gabrielle d’Estrées et une de ses soeurs, by an anonymous member of the Fontainebleau School, and Michelangelo Bunarotti’s The Creation of Adam, in the frescoed ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Moore spoke openly of his admiration for Michelangelo’s work, stating in 1964 that even in his youth ‘I still knew that as an individual he was an absolute superman. Even before I became a student I’d taken a peculiar obsessive interest in him’ (H. Moore quoted in D. Sylvester, ‘The Michelangelo Vision’, Sunday Times Magazine, 16 February 1964, in ibid.) Capturing the same sense of electric tension between two elements as they reach out towards one another, Working Model for Two Piece Reclining Figure: Points channels this highly-charged atmosphere, integrating the empty void into the composition in a novel way.