NARRATOR:
Throughout his career, Henry Moore was fascinated by the human figure. He often abstracted human form until it echoed the shapes of stones, rocks and mountains.
In Relief No.1, a sculpture from 1959, a female figure emerges from a monumental slab of textured bronze. Her solid legs move up like trees; her massive hips, torso and rounded shoulders are pared down to their elemental forms. The influential critic Herbert Read, one of Moore’s earliest champions, noted that the artist was deeply inspired by the natural world:
HERBERT READ [ACTOR]:
“Moore is not only a humanist in the sense that his work is intimately related to the human figure; but also in the wider sense of a man who has an acute awareness of the vital process itself, a feeling of organic form whether manifested in man, or animals, trees, plants, shells, fossils—whatever has been formed by the life force in its endless procreative process.”
NARRATOR:
Some critics, however, were less enamored of Moore’s work. During his first one-man exhibition in 1931 in London, one critic noted:
BRITISH CRITIC [ACTOR]:
“The cult of ugliness triumphs at the hands of Mr. Moore. He shows an utter contempt for the natural beauty of women and children, and in doing so, deprives even stone of its value as a means of aesthetic and emotional expression.”
Details
- Artist Name: Henry Moore (English, 1898-1986)
- Title: Relief No. 1
- Date: 1959
- Medium: Bronze
- Edition: Edition of 6, Cast No. 1
- Dimensions: 87 1/8 x 50 1/2 x 21 in. (221.3 x 128.3 x 53.3 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation
- Accession Number: M.1969.29.S
- Copyright: © The Henry Moore Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Object Information
The artist, sold to:
M. Knoedler and Co., Inc., New York, sold 1969-07-14 to:
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
M. Knoedler and Co., Inc., New York, sold 1969-07-14 to:
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
Henry Moore Fifteen Bronzes: From the Collections of the Norton Simon Foundation and the Norton Simon, Inc. Museum of Art
- New Orleans, New Orleans Museum of Art, 1973-12-03 to 1974-10-23
- Russell, John, Henry Moore,fig. 183 p. 178
- Hedgecoe, John, Henry Moore, p. 391
- Sculpture, Murals and Fountains at HemisFair '68,fig. 69
- Grohmann, Will, Henry Moore,pls. 190-191 p. 228
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best,2010, cat. 662 p. 324
- Grohmann, Will, The Art of Henry Moore,pls. 190-191 p. 232
- Henry Moore: Sculpture and Drawings, 1955-1964,no. 450, pls. 72, 73
- Read, Herbert, Henry Moore: A Study of His Life and Work,pl. 210 p. 224
Additional Artwork by Artist
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