Standing Figure: Knife Edge

Last updated

Standing Figure: Knife Edge
Henry Moore Yorkshire Sculpture Park.jpg
At the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 2007
Artist Henry Moore
Year1961
CatalogueLH 482
MediumBronze
Dimensions280 cm(110 in)

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 (LH 482) in 1961, and a larger Large Standing Figure: Knife Edge (LH 482a) in 1976. The sculpture also is sometimes known as Standing Figure (Bone) or Winged Figure.

Moore first conceived the work in 1961. It is based on a fragment of a bird's breastbone, to which a base and a head were added with plasticine. A rounded protrusion forms the head, and the figure has a diagonal line at its waist. The resulting composition resembles a human torso, similar to the Winged Victory of Samothrace . It had been described as the end point of Moore's investigation of upright figures, which started with Standing Figure (1950) (LH 290). He used a similar process, starting with bone fragments, for his 1962 work, Knife Edge Two Piece .

The sculpture was enlarged in three stages. First, Moore made a 162.5 centimetres (5 ft 4.0 in) high working model (LH 481) in 1961. The Henry Moore Foundation at Perry Green, Hertfordshire, has two versions, one in plaster and another in fibreglass, [1] [2] and other examples are held by the Hakone Open-Air Museum in Japan, [3] and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC. [4]

Standing Figure (1950) Sculpture, Glenkiln - geograph.org.uk - 13270.jpg
Standing Figure (1950)

Second, Moore made the 2.8 metres (9 ft 2 in) high Standing Figure: Knife Edge (LH 482), cast at the Morris Singer art foundry in 1961 in an edition of 7 (6 plus 1 artist's copy). The artist's copy, cast 0, is displayed in the W. B. Yeats Memorial Garden at St Stephen's Green in Dublin. [5] [6] [7] This piece was restored in 2020. [8] There are other examples at:

Moore enlarged the work again to create the 3.6 metres (11 ft 10 in) high Large Standing Figure: Knife Edge (LH 482a), cast in 1976 in an edition of 8 (6 plus 2 artist's copies). The two artists copies, cast 0 and cast 00, are owned by the Henry Moore Foundation, with one displayed in Greenwich Park from 1979 to 2007, and again since 2011. [18] [19] [20] There are other examples at:

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henie Onstad Kunstsenter</span>

The Henie Onstad Kunstsenter is an art museum located at Høvikodden in Bærum municipality in Akershus county, Norway. It is situated on a headland jutting into the Oslofjord, approximately 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) southwest of Oslo.

<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. Moore also 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>Upright Motive No. 1: Glenkiln Cross</i> Sculpture series by Henry Moore

Upright Motive No. 1: Glenkiln Cross is a bronze sculpture by Henry Moore, cast in a number of copies in 1955–56. It was the first of a series of narrow vertical sculptures by Moore, who compared them to totem poles.

<i>Three-Piece No. 3: Vertebrae (Working Model)</i> Sculpture by Henry Moore

Three-Piece No. 3: Vertebrae is a bronze sculpture by Henry Moore. It was cast in 1968 as in edition of 8, along with an artist's copy which is now part of the Tate collection.

<i>Three-Piece Reclining Figure No. 2: Bridge Prop</i> Sculpture series by Henry Moore

Three-Piece Reclining Figure No. 2: Bridge Prop is a sculpture by Henry Moore, created in 1963, and produced in an edition of six copies.

<i>Two-Piece Reclining Figure: Points</i> Sculpture series by Henry Moore

Two-Piece Reclining Figure: Points is a sculpture by Henry Moore, catalogued as LH 606, and created in 1969–70.

<i>Seated Woman, 1957</i> Sculpture series by Henry Moore

Seated Woman is a bronze sculpture by Henry Moore, catalogued as LH 435. Examples are in the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., and Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City.

Draped Reclining Figure, 1952–53 is a bronze sculpture by Henry Moore, catalogued as "LH 336".

<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>Knife Edge Two Piece 1962–65</i> Bronze sculpture by Henry Moore

Knife Edge Two Piece 1962–65 is an abstract bronze sculpture by Henry Moore. It is one of Moore's earliest sculptures in two pieces, a mode that he started to adopt in 1959. Its form was inspired by the shape of a bone fragment. Moore created the sculpture from an edition of 10 working models in 1962; these working models are now in public collections. Moore created four full-size casts between 1962 and 1965, with one retained by him. The three casts are on public display on College Green in Westminster, London; Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver; and the garden at Kykuit, the house of the Rockefeller family in Tarrytown, New York. Moore's own cast is on display at his former studio and estate, 'Hoglands' in Perry Green, Hertfordshire in southern England. A similar work, Mirror Knife Edge 1977, is displayed at the entrance to I. M. Pei's east wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The Westminster cast was donated by Moore through the Contemporary Art Society to what he believed was the City of London, but its actual ownership was undetermined for many years. The Westminster cast subsequently fell into disrepair, and was restored in 2013 after it became part of the British Parliamentary Art Collection; it was granted a Grade II* listing in January 2016.

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

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

<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>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.

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>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. Working Model for Standing Figure: Knife Edge (plaster), Henry Moore Foundation
  2. Working Model for Standing Figure: Knife Edge (fibreglass), Henry Moore Foundation
  3. Working Model for Standing Figure: Knife Edge 1961 (LH 481), Hakone, Henry Moore Foundation
  4. Working Model for "Standing Figure: Knife Edge", Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
  5. Standing Figure: Knife Edge, LH 482 cast 0, Henry Moore Foundation
  6. Standing Figure Knife Edge 1961 (LH 482), Dulin, Henry Moore Foundation
  7. Knife-Edge, memorial for W.B. Yeats
  8. Bromwell, Philip (8 July 2020). "'Hidden gem' restored in Dublin's St Stephen's Green". Archived from the original on 8 July 2020.
  9. Standing Figure: Knife Edge 1961 (LH 482), San Francisco, Henry Moore Foundation
  10. Standing Figure, Knife-Edge, Smithsonian Institution
  11. Standing Figure: Knife Edge 1961 (LH 482), Pasadena, Henry Moore Foundation
  12. Standing Figure: Knife Edge, cast 4, Norton Simon Museum
  13. Standing Figure: Knife Edge 1961 (LH 482), Minneapolis, Henry Moore Foundation
  14. Standing Figure: Knife Edge, Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, Walker Art Center
  15. Standing Figure: Knife Edge 1961 (LH 482), Grugapark
  16. Kunstwerke im Grugapark, Essen
  17. Outdoor Sculpture Collection, Henry Moore, Standing Figure: Knife-Edge The Kreeger Museum
  18. Large Standing Figure: Knife Edge, LH 482a cast 0, Henry Moore Foundation
  19. Large Standing Figure: Knife Edge, LH 482a cast 00, Henry Moore Foundation
  20. The return of Large Standing Figure: Knife Edge Henry Moore sculpture installed in Greenwich Park, 1 January 2011
  21. Large Standing Figure: Knife Edge, LH 482a cast 1, Henry Moore Foundation
  22. Sculpture Park, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter
  23. Large Standing Figure: Knife Edge, LH 482a cast 3, Henry Moore Foundation
  24. Large Standing Figure: Knife Edge 1961 (LH 482a), Osaka, Henry Moore Foundation
  25. Large Standing Figure: Knife Edge 1961 (LH 482a), Rayleigh, Henry Moore Foundation
  26. Large Standing Figure: Knife Edge 1961 (LH 482a), Little Rock, Henry Moore Foundation
  27. Large Standing Figure: Knife Edge, Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture