Outdoor Sculpture Collection


Henry Moore

Three Piece Reclining Figure No. 2: Bridge Prop

 
(1898—1986)
Three Piece Reclining Figure No. 2: Bridge Prop
1963
bronze
46 x 99 x 52 inches
 

Three-Piece Reclining Figure No. 2: Bridge Prop, created in the middle of the artist’s career, addresses Moore’s concern that sculpture should have a sense of monumentality and energy without appearing merely big and heavy.  Moore wanted to think that his sculpture “has a force, a strength, a life, a vitality from inside it, so that you have the sense that the form is pressing from inside trying to burst or trying to give strength from inside itself . . . this is, perhaps, what interested me most in bones as much as in flesh because the bone is the inner structure of all living form.” Moore includes the words “bridge” and “prop” because to him a view from eye level produces a series of arches and bridges. The human figure takes on the dimensions of a landscape and, thus, it becomes increasingly important for the artist to set his work outside as a part of nature. The artist insisted that, “… sculpture is an art of open air. I would rather have a piece of my sculpture put in a landscape, almost any landscape, than in, or on the most beautiful building I know".


 

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