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Lot Essay
Working Model for Hill Arches, part of the Hill Arches sculpture group Henry Moore produced between 1972 and 1973, explores not just landscape, but also found objects, human relationships and the complex interaction between the solid and the void. Indeed, the group itself is arguably one of Moore’s most ambitious projects. David Sylvester, in his introduction to Moore’s 80th Birthday Exhibition at the Serpentine Galleries in 1978, noted that: Hill Arches with its flamboyant energy, its superb symmetry, its coiled tension, its predatory menace, its formality and its sheer magnificence, is like an especially ritualistic and flashy mating display.
Both the Maquette and Working Model were conceived as preparatory studies for the full-scale bronze. From the first maquette, only small refinements were made by Moore, primarily to adjust proportion, balance and spatial relationships. The essential formal language of Hill Arches is fully present in Working Model, where curving, ribbon-like bands of bronze interlock without fusing, creating an open yet unified structure. The forms appear dynamic rather than static, suggesting rhythmic movement or inner energy.
Hill Arches belongs to a wider series of late monumental bronzes that includes Locking Piece, Sheep Piece and The Arch. Despite its title, the work’s abstraction is less overtly organic than the earlier pieces. Instead, its four components articulate space in a more nuanced way; they are carefully positioned to contain and frame voids, making empty space as significant as solid mass.
Moore always encouraged viewers to move around his sculptures, and this work exemplifies that intention with particular force. As one circles it, one arch partially obscures another, creating constantly shifting views and a sense of mystery. The sculpture unfolds over time, rewarding physical engagement. These different elements can be seen to evoke a wish-bone, a pelvic-bone or part of a stirrup, depending on the viewing angle, demonstrating Moore’s incorporation of the found objects collected, or the ones he may have seen around him.
The arched, bone-like forms that face each other provide the tension and energy that David Sylvester observed in the work, and it is in these that Working Model for Hill Arches references the human aspect key to so many of Moore’s reclining figures, in this case stripped down to the central core of the being.
Undoubtedly, the arched forms evoke rolling hills, and the sculpture has often been described as a 'landscape in itself'. Moore’s Yorkshire childhood likely informed his sensitivity to horizon lines and natural contours. The interlocking arches also organise and frame the surrounding space, creating shifting spatial relationships as the viewer moves around it. Specifically, inspiration may also have come from fields near his studio, including one with an artificial mound formed from gravel excavation, on which Moore considered placing a sculpture. Such concerns with siting and spatial interaction are beautifully reflected in this Working Model.
Both the Maquette and Working Model were conceived as preparatory studies for the full-scale bronze. From the first maquette, only small refinements were made by Moore, primarily to adjust proportion, balance and spatial relationships. The essential formal language of Hill Arches is fully present in Working Model, where curving, ribbon-like bands of bronze interlock without fusing, creating an open yet unified structure. The forms appear dynamic rather than static, suggesting rhythmic movement or inner energy.
Hill Arches belongs to a wider series of late monumental bronzes that includes Locking Piece, Sheep Piece and The Arch. Despite its title, the work’s abstraction is less overtly organic than the earlier pieces. Instead, its four components articulate space in a more nuanced way; they are carefully positioned to contain and frame voids, making empty space as significant as solid mass.
Moore always encouraged viewers to move around his sculptures, and this work exemplifies that intention with particular force. As one circles it, one arch partially obscures another, creating constantly shifting views and a sense of mystery. The sculpture unfolds over time, rewarding physical engagement. These different elements can be seen to evoke a wish-bone, a pelvic-bone or part of a stirrup, depending on the viewing angle, demonstrating Moore’s incorporation of the found objects collected, or the ones he may have seen around him.
The arched, bone-like forms that face each other provide the tension and energy that David Sylvester observed in the work, and it is in these that Working Model for Hill Arches references the human aspect key to so many of Moore’s reclining figures, in this case stripped down to the central core of the being.
Undoubtedly, the arched forms evoke rolling hills, and the sculpture has often been described as a 'landscape in itself'. Moore’s Yorkshire childhood likely informed his sensitivity to horizon lines and natural contours. The interlocking arches also organise and frame the surrounding space, creating shifting spatial relationships as the viewer moves around it. Specifically, inspiration may also have come from fields near his studio, including one with an artificial mound formed from gravel excavation, on which Moore considered placing a sculpture. Such concerns with siting and spatial interaction are beautifully reflected in this Working Model.