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Henry Moore Artwork Catalogue

Torso with Point

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photo: Clare Matthews
Torso with Point
photo: Clare Matthews
photo: Clare Matthews

Torso with Point

Date1967
Artwork TypeSculpture
Catalogue NumberLH 570 cast 4
Mediabronze
Dimensionsartwork: 107 × 132.1 cm
Signature

unsigned

OwnershipThe Henry Moore Foundation: gift of the artist 1977
More Information
Moore’s comment on his tendency to ‘Humanise everything, to relate mountains to people, tree trunks to the human body’, is powerfully evoked in this work. The natural, twisted formation of a tree trunk here takes on the appearance of a human torso. Moore was fascinated with the trees that grew around his house and studios in Perry Green. Shortly after this work was made, he made a series of tree drawings.

The work also recalls the more clearly human Draped Torso Moore made in 1953. The earlier work is influenced by Moore’s engagement with antique sculpture. In this work, the evocation of an ancient past is provided by the natural world, the slow-growing and deeply rooted tree. Moreover, the heavy solid forms of this particular Torso, which rely upon this organic strength and authority, emphasise the importance of the torso as the centre of the human body.

Moore described the properties in nature which helped evolve his work:
But a sculptor is a person obsessed with the form and the shape of things, and it’s not just the shape of any one thing, but the shape of anything and everything: the growth in a flower; the hard, tense strength, although delicate form of a bone; the strong, solid fleshiness of a beech tree trunk. […] They’re all part of the experience of form and therefore, in my opinion, everything, every shape, every bit of natural form: animals, people, pebbles, shells, anything you like are all things that can help you to make sculpture.
Henry Moore in Forma, 1964, see Wilkinson, p. 198
Exhibitions
Exhibitions
Published References
photo: Hannah Higham 2020
LH 596 cast 0
1968-70
Maquette for Carving: Points
LH 643a cast 0
1974 cast 1985
Photography © Tate 2014.  For the supply of this image please contact Tate Images - <a href="ma…
LH 211 cast b
1939-40 cast before 1949
Two Piece Point and Hole
LH 793 cast 0
1980
Photo: Mark Stephenson
LH 211 cast c
1939-40 cast 1959
Reclining Figure: Points
LH 603 cast 0
1969 cast 1975
Archive image of a representative cast.
LH 643a cast 9
1974 cast 1985