Reclining Figure (Lincoln Center)

Last updated
Reclining Figure: Lincoln Center
Artist Henry Moore
Year1963-1965
CatalogueLH 519
MediumBronze
Dimensions544 cm× 855 cm(214 in× 337 in)

Reclining Figure (Lincoln Center) (LH 519) [1] is a statue by Henry Moore. The original two-part bronze statue of a human figure was commissioned for the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, where it has been displayed outdoors since 1965 in a pool of water to the north of the new Metropolitan Opera House. Other copies in plaster or bronze exist, and are displayed in other cities.

Contents

Background

Moore received the commission to create a sculpture for a pool of water outside the Lincoln Center in December 1961, with the substantial fee of $225,000 to cover all his costs, including materials, casting and shipping, using funds donated by Albert List and Vera List. The center's architect, Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, suggested Moore, but there was resistance from some members of the Lincoln Center Arts Committee. Some objected to the selection of a European sculptor; Newbold Morris, then Parks Commissioner of New York City, described the work as "junk", and wanted it removed.[ citation needed ]

Moore visited the site in 1962, exclaiming that the pool was as big as a cricket pitch, but declined to create a site-specific work. Instead, the work was based on some exiting ideas from Moore's earlier drawings and maquettes. Moore was attracted by the idea that the work would be reflected in the water, and decided to work on the concept of woman and rock rising from the water. (Meanwhile, back-room negotiations ensured that the Moore sculpture intended for the Lincoln Center would not become overshadowed by prospective Moore commissions for the Seagram Building, at One Chase Manhattan Plaza, and at Columbia Law School, although a cast of Moore's Three-Way Piece: Points was installed at Columbia in 1967.)[ citation needed ]

Description

The sculpture comprises two elements: one resembles the head and torso of a human figure, and the other can be seen the figure's legs. The torso is a relatively thin slab of bronze, with protruding rounded lumps suggesting body parts, the top terminating at a fin which can be interpreted as the head and which extends down the back of the torso into its backbone. It has no discernible arms, and becomes arched into two parts as it enters the water. It leans towards the second element, which also joins the water with columns separated by an arch. The roughly textured surfaces and other smoothly rounded faces of the second element bear some resemblance to an eroded cliff. Indeed, the art critic David Thompson has suggested an allusion to the arch at Étretat painted by several French Impressionists.[ citation needed ]

Casts

Two Piece Reclining Figure No.5 1963-4 at Kenwood House in 2005 Henry Moore - Two Piece Reclining Figure 5 - Kenwood.jpg
Two Piece Reclining Figure No.5 1963-4 at Kenwood House in 2005

Moore's ideas for the sculpture may have been inspired by a flint stone,[ citation needed ] and he probably worked on some early clay or plaster maquettes in 1962 to develop his ideas, although none have been identified from those that survive. Two of the maquettes were increased in scale to create half-size plaster working models, each supported by an armature. Moore worked on the surface of the working models with chisels and other tools. The completed plaster models were painted a dark colour, and placed in a pond at his home and studio at Perry Green, Hertfordshire. Moore selected one working model (LH 518) for the Lincoln Center commission, and the other became Two Piece Reclining Figure No.5 1963-4 (LH 517).

Moore later had two bronze casts made of the plaster working model, measuring 2.35 by 3.72 by 1.65 metres (7 ft 9 in × 12 ft 2 in × 5 ft 5 in). Moore presented one bronze cast to the Tate Gallery in 1978, along with 35 other works. It was included in the exhibition to celebrate Moore's 80th birthday at the Tate that year, on the grass outside the gallery. It has been on long-term loan to Charing Cross Hospital since 1980, where it is displayed in a pool that was created for it. Moore donated the plaster working model to the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1974. A second bronze cast is in the collection of the MIT List Visual Arts Center, mounted on a granite base; it was donated by Vera Glaser List in memory of Samuel Glaser. [2] A third version is located on Henry Moore’s estate in Hertfordshire, England. [2]

The working model was scaled up again to create a plaster version of the full-size sculpture. This sculpture was so large that Moore needed a new temporary studio, a metal structure covered with transparent plastic sheeting, to house it while he worked on it. He used the same structure for his largest outdoor works until it became dilapidated and was removed in the 1980s.[ citation needed ]

After the full-scale plaster model was completed in August 1964, it was cut into pieces to be sent to the Hermann Noack foundry in Berlin, where the pieces were cast in bronze and welded together again to create the completed work. It was shipped on MS Finnclipper in July 1965, and installed at the Lincoln Centre on 21 September 1965.[ citation needed ]

The 6-short-ton (5.4 t) full-size bronze sculpture (LH 519) is 16 feet (4.9 m) high and 30 feet (9.1 m) feet long, making it Moore's largest work at that date: it was twice the size of his stone UNESCO Reclining Figure of 1958, although his later Large Reclining Figure of 1984 would be 9 metres (30 ft) long.[ citation needed ]

The work was removed in 2007, to allow the North Plaza at the Lincoln Center to be reconfigured. The sculpture was reinstalled in a smaller pool in 2009, which was named the Paul Milstein Pool in 2011.[ citation needed ]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Moore</span> English artist known for sculpture (1898–1986)

Henry Spencer Moore was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. As well as sculpture, Moore produced many drawings, including a series depicting Londoners sheltering from the Blitz during the Second World War, along with other graphic works on paper.

<i>Reclining Figure 1969–70</i> Sculpture series by Henry Moore

Reclining Figure 1969–70 is a bronze sculpture by English artist Henry Moore.

<i>Draped Seated Woman 1957–58</i> Sculpture series by Henry Moore

Draped Seated Woman 1957–58 is a bronze sculpture by the British artist Henry Moore, cast in an edition of seven in the 1950s. The sculpture depicts a female figure resting in a seated position, with her legs folded back to her right, her left hand supporting her weight, and her right hand on her right leg. The drapery emphasises the female figure, but the facial features are abstracted and barely picked out.

<i>Draped Reclining Woman 1957–58</i> Sculpture series by Henry Moore

Draped Reclining Woman 1957–58 is a bronze sculpture by British artist Henry Moore, with a series of six castings made by Hermann Noack in Berlin.

<i>King and Queen</i> (sculpture) Sculpture series by Henry Moore

King and Queen is a bronze sculpture by Henry Moore, designed in 1952. It depicts two figures, one male and one female, seated beside each other on a bench, both facing slightly to the left. It is Moore's only sculpture depicting a single pair of adult figures. Moore's records suggest it was originally known as Two Seated Figures.

<i>Spindle Piece</i> Sculpture series by Henry Moore

Spindle Piece is a bronze sculpture series by Henry Moore. Unusually, the sculpture was made in four sizes: a plaster maquette cast in bronze as Maquette for Spindle Piece in 1968, a larger plaster working model which was also cast in bronze as Spindle Piece in 1968, a larger series of bronze sculptures Large Spindle Piece cast in 1974, and the largest model, known as The Spindle, carved in travertine in 1981.

<i>Reclining Figure: Festival</i> Sculpture series by Henry Moore

Reclining Figure: Festival is a bronze sculpture by English artist Henry Moore, commissioned by the Arts Council in 1949 for the Festival of Britain in 1951. The sculpture can be viewed as an abstraction of a reclining female human figure, resting on two arms, with a small head.

<i>Single Form</i>

Single Form is a monumental bronze sculpture by the British artist Barbara Hepworth. It is her largest work, and one of her most prominent public commissions, displayed since 1964 in a circular water feature that forms a traffic island at the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York City, outside the United Nations Secretariat Building and the Dag Hammarskjöld Library. It is also the largest artwork cast by the Morris Singer foundry.

<i>Three Standing Figures 1947</i> Sculpture by Henry Moore (LH 268, Battersea Park, London)

Three Standing Figures 1947 is a large stone sculpture by Henry Moore. It was made in 1947–48, and exhibited at London County Council's first Open-Air Sculpture Exhibition at Battersea Park in 1948. Donated to the council, it has been exhibited at the park since 1950. It became a Grade II listed building in 1988.

<i>Three Piece Sculpture: Vertebrae</i> Sculpture by Henry Moore

Three Piece Sculpture: Vertebrae is an abstract bronze sculpture by Henry Moore.

<i>Three Way Piece No.1: Points</i> Sculpture series by Henry Moore

Three-Way Piece No.1: Points is a bronze abstract sculpture by Henry Moore. Three full-size sculptures were cast in 1967, one installed on the Columbia University campus in Upper Manhattan, New York City, and the others at Des Moines Art Center, and Fairmount Park in Philadelphia.

<i>Sheep Piece 1971–72</i> Sculpture series by Henry Moore

Sheep Piece is a sculpture by Henry Moore made in three sizes from 1969-1972, starting in 1969 with a 14 centimetres (5.5 in) maquette modelled in plaster and then cast in bronze, enlarged in 1971 to a 142 centimetres (56 in) working model in plaster and then cast in bronze, and finally a full size bronze on a monumental scale, 570 centimetres (220 in) high, cast in 1971-72. The four full-size casts are at the Henry Moore Foundation in Perry Green, Hertfordshire, in Zürich, in Kansas City, and at the Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Gardens in Purchase, New York.

<i>Reclining Figure 1938</i> Sculpture series by Henry Moore

Reclining Figure 1938 is a small sculpture by Henry Moore of an sinuous abstracted human figure. An enlarged version was made in 1984 for the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, Singapore. The resulting Large Reclining Figure is some 9 metres (30 ft) long, making it the largest sculpture made by Moore.

<i>Recumbent Figure 1938</i> Sculpture by Henry Moore

Recumbent Figure 1938 (LH191) is an early sculpture by Henry Moore. It was commissioned by the architect Serge Chermayeff for his modernist villa at Bentley Wood, near Halland, Sussex. At the time it was made, it was Moore's largest stone sculpture. It was donated to the Tate Gallery in 1939, making it the first example of Moore's work in a public collection.

<i>Standing Figure: Knife Edge</i> Sculpture series by Henry Moore

Standing Figure: Knife Edge is a bronze sculpture by the English artist Henry Moore. It was cast in two full-size versions: Standing Figure: Knife Edge in 1961, and a larger Large Standing Figure: Knife Edge in 1976. The sculpture also is sometimes known as Standing Figure (Bone) or Winged Figure.

<i>Oval with Points</i> Sculpture series by Henry Moore

Oval with Points is a series of enigmatic abstract sculptures by British sculptor Henry Moore, made in plaster and bronze from 1968 to 1970, from a 14-centimetre (5.5 in) maquette in 1968 made in plaster and then cast in bronze, through a 110-centimetre (43 in) working model in 1968–1969 also made plaster and then cast in bronze, to a full-size 332-centimetre (131 in) bronze version cast in 1969.

<i>Family Group</i> (Moore) Sculpture series by Henry Moore

Family Group is a sculpture by Henry Moore. It was his first large-scale bronze sculpture, and his first large bronze with multiple castings. Made for Barclay School in Stevenage, it evolved from drawings in the 1930s, through a series of models to bronze castings in 1950–51. It also one of the last important sculptures that Moore developed from preliminary drawings: in future, he worked mainly from found objects, maquettes and models.

<i>UNESCO Reclining Figure 1957–58</i> Sculpture by Henry Moore


UNESCO Reclining Figure 1957–58 is a sculpture by Henry Moore. It was made in a series of scales, from a small plaster maquette, through a half-size working model made in plaster and cast in bronze, to a full-size version carved in Roman travertine marble in 1957–1958. The final work was installed in 1958 at the World Heritage Centre, the headquarters of UNESCO at the Place de Fontenoy in Paris. This was Moore's last major public commission in which he created a new work for a specific site; he afterwards generally worked from an existing sketch or model.

<i>Three Way Piece No.2: Archer</i> Sculpture by Henry Moore

Three Way Piece No.2: Archer is a large sculpture by the British artist Henry Moore. Two casts exist: cast 1 in Toronto, cast 2 is owned by the National Gallery, Berlin. The work is 340 cm long and 325 cm high. A plaster cast of the work was also made, and was shown in June 1965 at the Queen's Theatre in London as part of a memorial service to T.S. Eliot.

<i>Locking Piece</i> Sculpture series by Henry Moore

Locking Piece is a sculpture by Henry Moore. It comprises two interlocking forms holding a third element between them, on a bronze base. It is usually mounted on a separate plinth. The sculpture was created in 1962–1964, and bronze casts were made in 1964–1967.

References

  1. ↑ "Reclining Figure". henry-moore.org.
  2. 1 2 "Reclining Figure (Working Model for Lincoln Center Sculpture)". MIT List Visual Arts Center. MIT. 24 April 2014. Retrieved 2019-12-15.

Coordinates: 40°46′24″N73°59′01″W / 40.77320°N 73.98367°W / 40.77320; -73.98367

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.