Henry Moore: Sculptural Process and Public Identity

Presented by the artist to Tate in 1978 as part of the Henry Moore Gift.

This large bronze sculpture is made up of three separate parts mounted on a rectangular bronze base. Moore would have made the original model for this sculpture in plaster, which was built up in successive layers over a supportive armature probably made from wood. The hardened plaster would then have been smoothed with files and abrasives to remove the traces of tool marks from the surface. A mould would then have been taken from the completed plaster version that was used by the foundry to cast a hollow sculpture in bronze.

The sculpture was cast at the Noack Foundry in West Berlin in an edition of eight plus one artist’s copy. The foundry mark ‘H. NOACK BERLIN’ is inscribed on the base (fig.1). The maximum size of a cast piece of bronze is dependent on the size of the crucible that the foundry uses because the bronze must be cast in a single pour. In practice, this means that bronzes of this size are usually cast in a number of separate sections that are then welded together to form the whole. The base was also fabricated by welding bronze sheets together. These welds were then filed down and textured to match the surrounding surface, a process called ‘chasing’. The entire surface of this bronze was chased after casting using various grades of abrasives to produce the final smooth finish. There is, therefore, little evidence remaining to show what casting technique was used. The artist’s signature and edition number ‘Moore 0/8’ is inscribed on the top of the base in a corner (fig.2).

After the bronze had been chased, it is likely that the foundry applied an artificial patina to the surfaces, which helped disguise welds and repairs. This involved applying chemical solutions to the surface that reacted with the metal to produce coloured compounds. In this case the patina is a mid-brown colour, but this has been rubbed back in places to reveal an underlying golden tone, especially on the high points and sharp edges. This is enhanced by a warmer transparent brown patina that was applied in some areas, probably using a ferric nitrate solution. There are signs that a lacquer was originally used to protect this patina and preserve the lighter colours, but this has broken down on the high points, which has allowed a natural patina to establish itself over time (fig.3).

The three parts of the sculpture are fixed to the base by eight threaded bolts inserted from underneath: three bolts in two of the parts and one in the other. There are two threaded holes on either side of the base, which were made to accommodate specialist eye bolts used as fixing points for slings or chains that allow the sculpture to be safely lifted into position. Lifting attachments are often found on Moore’s large-scale sculptures and reveal that Moore thought carefully about how these works might be installed.

Since entering the Tate collection in 1978 this sculpture has been on loan to a number of institutions and was displayed outside for long periods, during which time it became marked with graffiti and scratches. In 2007 it was decided that major restoration treatment should be undertaken at the Henry Moore Foundation to repair the damage. There was some deeply inscribed graffiti on the base that could not be successfully retouched using conventional conservation techniques, so it was necessary to re-finish the bronze surface in these areas. This process involved the removal of the original patina before repatinating the affected areas to match the surrounding colour. To do this the restorers used chemical solutions that are often used by foundries, namely potassium polysulphide (often known as ‘liver of sulphur’) and ferric nitrate, before applying coloured waxes to complete the restoration.

Working Model for Three Piece No.3: Vertebrae is a large-scale model for a monumental bronze sculpture measuring over seven metres long. Tate’s work represents the intermediary stage in the gradual enlargement of the sculpture, which comprises three individual parts mounted on a bronze base (fig.1). These three bone-like components are arranged horizontally along the length of the rectangular base and feature projecting forms that interlock with those of the adjacent component. While each part is uniquely shaped and orientated, Moore ensured that they were sufficiently similar to create uniformity across the sculpture. Each piece has three main spurs: a thin, tubular form that terminates in a rounded tip, a short bulbous form, and another tubular form with a wide circumference that bends at a right angle and culminates in an engorged pyramidal point. Cumulatively, the sculpture is made up of contrasting spiky and rounded protrusions and curved and sharp edges. The thinner tapered tubular limbs of the outer two pieces book-end the sculpture, while the right-angled section of the middle piece creates a cantilevered, horizontal bridge-like form (fig.2). The work is designed to be viewed in the round so that no two views are the same and there is no definitive front or back. Considering the full-size version of this sculpture, the art historian Norbert Lynton noted in 2006 that although ‘the three elements are similar but not identical ... the experience offered is still one of variety within repetition’.1 The sculpture has a smooth, highly polished and reflective surface that heightens its tactile qualities.

This sculpture was developed from a small maquette made in plaster in 1968.2 By this time Moore had established a practice of testing out his designs for sculptures by making small three-dimensional sketch-models as opposed to drawing his ideas on a page. In 1978 he explained:

It is probable that Moore made the small model in his maquette studio in the grounds of his home, Hoglands, at Perry Green in Hertfordshire. This studio housed his ever growing collection of found objects, including bones, shells and flint stones, the shapes of which often served as starting points for Moore’s formal experiments in three dimensions. In 1963 Moore explained to critic David Sylvester how he worked with these objects:

It is likely that the three parts to Maquette for Three Piece No.3: Vertebrae were developed from plaster casts of the impression left by a stone or bone pressed into clay. In 1987 the curator Alan Wilkinson went so far as to propose that the ‘maquette may have been based on the stone second from the left’ in a photograph of flint stones in Moore’s studio (fig.3).5 Once these pieces of plaster had hardened, Moore could add and subtract forms, and smooth or sharpen edges and points to his preferred design, so that the final work was ‘not a copy of nature, but built on nature’s principles’.6

Archival photographs of the maquette illustrate how Moore experimented with the arrangement of the component parts (figs.4 and 5). A comparison of these photographs reveals that Moore considered the rhythms created by the interaction of the forms, and assessed whether they should be dispersed across the base or clustered together. After settling on the final arrangement Moore would have used the maquette as a template for Tate’s larger working model. By charting and measuring specific points on the surface of the maquette it was possible to make an exact enlargement of the sculpture. Much, if not all of this work would have been undertaken by Moore’s studio assistants, who at the time included the sculptor Richard Wentworth. In 1988 Wentworth recalled the methods used to scale up Moore’s sculptures:

Wentworth recalled that he worked on ‘one of the parts for Three Piece No.3 Vertebrae’ and his text, published in the Burlington Magazine, was accompanied by an illustration of Tate’s sculpture, suggesting that he constructed one of the plaster components for the working model rather than the final monumental bronze.

In order to make the working model plaster from which Tate’s bronze was eventually cast, Wentworth and Moore’s other assistants, including Yeheskiel Yardini, would have initially constructed an armature to the required size and shape for each section of the sculpture. The armature was made up of numerous lengths of wood, which not only provided a supportive frame, but the tips of which corresponded to a point on the surface of the sculpture identified on the maquette. These rods were then draped in scrim, a bandage like fabric, onto which wet plaster could be applied to create a hard shell. Layers of plaster were then built up to create the basic shape while the interior of the plaster remained hollow.

After the plaster components had been modelled to the required shape and size, Moore could concentrate on their surface texture. Using an array of tools, including chisels, files and sandpaper, he and his assistants could create different types of textures depending on the wetness of the plaster. Moore found plaster to be a very useful material because it could be ‘both built up, as in modelling, or cut down, in the way you carve stone or wood’.8 The surface texture of the plaster was captured in the bronze casting process and in 1977 the curator Alan Bowness noted that ‘most of the post-war bronzes had rough, variegated textures, but from 1963 or so Moore began to introduce smooth and polished bronze surfaces’ as seen in this work.9

Once Moore was satisfied with the surface finish of the sculpture and was sure that he wanted to proceed with the casting process, he sent the three plaster parts to the Noack Foundry in West Berlin to be cast in bronze. In 1967 Moore stated, ‘I use the Noack foundry for casting most of my work because in my opinion, Noack is the best bronze founder I know ... Also, the Noack foundry is reliable in all ways – in keeping to dates of delivery – and in sustaining the quality of their work’.10 It is unclear which technique was used to cast this bronze sculpture for it is known that Noack used the lost wax and sand casting methods. Welding seams were also disguised after casting when the sculpture underwent considerable treatment to create the smooth all-over surface finish.

After casting at the foundry the bronze sculptures would have been returned to Moore so that he could check the quality of the casting and make decisions about the patination. A patina is the surface colour of a sculpture and can occur naturally or be achieved by applying chemical solutions to pre-heated bronze. Publicly, Moore always maintained that he patinated his works himself, and rarely acknowledged that this physical work would have been undertaken by his assistants. It is also known that during the 1960s, as Moore increased his sculptural production and more of his works were editioned, Noack would sometimes patinate his sculptures for him at the foundry. Moore made regular visits to the foundry and could adjust the patina when he felt it necessary. A photograph showing a bronze example of Working Model for Three Piece No.3: Vertebrae in Moore’s studio, probably taken in the early 1970s, records the type of variegated patina Moore intended for the sculpture (fig.6). An all-over golden colour is punctuated by plumes of deep red and orange. However, despite his attention to the colour of his bronzes, in 1978 Moore remarked, ‘in my sculpture, whilst of course colour counts, it’s not the main thing. Otherwise I would have been a painter’.11

Tate’s example of Working Model for Three Piece No.3: Vertebrae underwent major restoration treatment in 2007 at the Henry Moore Foundation. Scratches and graffiti on the surface of the sculpture and the base were removed, which subsequently required localised repatination. The sculpture has a variegated patina with an underlying golden-brown colour highlighted with deep red and a chestnut-brown, which provide a range of warm tones (fig.7). The sharper edges of the sculpture have being polished to reveal the underlying golden colour of the bronze. Working Model for Three Piece No.3: Vertebrae was cast in an edition of eight plus one artist’s copy. Tate’s example is stamped with the artist’s signature and the number ‘0/8’ on the base; the ‘0’ indicates that this work was the artist’s copy (fig.8). Other examples are held in the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester; and the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas. The remaining casts are believed to be held in private collections.

The whereabouts of the original plaster from which the bronze edition was cast are unknown, but photographs reveal that it was used as the template for the large-scale version of the sculpture, known as Three Piece Sculpture: Vertebrae 1968–9 (fig.9).12 This work was enlarged using the same technique that Wentworth had used to enlarge the working model from the maquette. In 1976 Moore was commissioned by the City of Dallas to create a sculpture that would be sited in the plaza in front of the newly built City Hall, designed by architect I.M. Pei. Moore disliked commissions that demanded that he conform to a set of requirements, preferring instead to remodel or develop a work already in progress. For the Dallas commission Moore decided that an enlarged version of Three Piece Sculpture: Vertebrae would be suitable, but Pei ‘proposed that the component parts should be rearranged’ in a triangular cluster so that visitors to the plaza would be able to walk though and interact with the sculpture.13 In December 1978 Moore visited the United States for the installation of Three Forms Vertebrae 1978–9, known locally as Dallas Piece (fig.10).14 Of the work Moore stated:

Working Model for Three Piece No.3: Vertebrae developed from Moore’s earlier series of multi–part figurative sculptures. Three Piece Reclining Figure No.1 1961–2 (Tate T02289; fig.11) and Three Piece Reclining Figure No.2: Bridge Prop 1963 (Tate T02292) both represent the human body in three separate parts, and comprise forms originating from the shapes of bones. In 1963 Moore explained the idea and implications of creating a multi-part figurative sculpture:

Moore’s identification of the middle piece of his three-piece sculptures as a ‘vertebra’ has a precedent in his earlier multi-part work Four Piece Composition: Reclining Figure 1934 (Tate T02054; fig.12). In this sculpture the figure is broken down into four parts arranged along a plinth, dating Moore’s interest in fragmented figures back to the early 1930s. In 1968 Moore described the sculpture as comprising ‘the head part, the leg part, the body, and the small round form, which is the umbilicus and which makes a connection’.17 According to Tate curator Richard Morphet, during the 1930s ‘the umbilicus was important to Moore as a symbol, for it represented the connection of our life with other life. It was therefore his habit to indicate it specifically in most of his figurative sculptures’.18

With these precedents in mind, the central component of Working Model for Three Piece No.3: Vertebrae may be regarded as the vertabra or umbilicus, connecting and relating the two end pieces together to create a unified entity. As the curator Alan Bowness has suggested, ‘the reclining figure component is less important than the way the three forms lock together like the bones of a spinal column. The fascination with locking forms is one general characteristic of ... [Moore’s] late style’.19 Reflecting on his series of vertebrae sculptures, Moore stated,

In a conversation with Tate researcher Richard Calvocoressi on 12 December 1980 Moore explained that in thinking about the vertebral column, ‘what interested him was the idea of a series or progression of similar forms’.21 These interests can also be seen in Moore’s large sculpture Locking Piece 1963–4 (Tate T02293).

In 1983 the architect György Doczi developed this idea of singular components coming together to form a whole. He suggested that Moore’s monumental Three Piece Sculpture: Vertebrae adhered to the harmonious proportions of the golden ratio, where the distance between the sculpture’s two upper-most tips is twice as long as the distance from each tip to its respective outer-most edge. ‘Golden’ proportions occur naturally in plants, animals and organic matter, and Doczi asserted that ‘a great artist creates harmonies in the same way as does nature herself, because he or she is truly at one with nature’.22 He concluded that ‘Moore’s sculpture is a model of ... harmonious sharing’, where each component is predisposed to work in unison with the other in order to form a whole.23 In 1978 Moore simply said of Three Piece Sculpture: Vertebrae, ‘the inspiration is life. I look upon then [sic] as life. It couldn’t be what it is unless I had been excited by the human figure’.24

Working Model for Three Piece No.3: Vertebrae was presented by Henry Moore to the Tate Gallery in 1978 as part of the Henry Moore Gift, which comprised thirty-six sculptures in bronze, marble and plaster. Moore first indicated his plan to give the gallery a large selection of his work in the early 1960s, and in June 1969 a deed of agreement was signed, which outlined the terms of the Gift and the works included in it. It was agreed that the works would remain in Moore’s possession for his lifetime, should he so choose. However, in 1977 Tate’s director Norman Reid petitioned Moore to present his Gift so that it could be displayed in its entirety alongside the Tate’s existing collection of his work in an exhibition celebrating the artist’s eightieth birthday scheduled for the following year. Moore duly agreed and the Gift was delivered to the Tate in June 1978. A press release was prepared announcing that ‘The group [of sculptures] is the most substantial gift of works ever given to the Tate by an artist during his lifetime’.25 The exhibition was attended by over 20,500 people and nearly 11,000 copies of the catalogue were sold.26 At its close in late August the Director of Tate, Norman Reid, reflected in a letter to Moore’s daughter Mary Danowski that although he was sad to see the exhibition come to an end ‘we have the consolation of the splendid group of sculptures which Henry has presented to the nation’.27

Following the exhibition the Tate Trustees decided to lend, on a long term basis, those sculptures for which there were no immediate exhibition plans to select regional galleries and museums. Rather than keep large works in storage it was agreed, with the artist’s approval, that it would be advantageous – for Tate and for the recipient galleries – for the works to be dispersed across the country. In March 1979 it was agreed that Working Model for Three Piece No.3: Vertebrae would be exhibited at the University of Reading, where it was installed outside on 19 July. Most loans under this scheme were made for five-year periods. However, by the end of 1981 Working Model for Three Piece No.3: Vertebrae, along with a number of other works on loan, was recalled for Moore’s British Council exhibitions in Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Venezuela and Japan.