Henry Moore's Upright Motive No. 9 at Kansas City

Introduction: Moore at the Kansas City Sculpture Park

One of artist Henry Moore's greatest pleasures was seeing his sculptures in the open air (Russell 1989), so he would be very pleased to see the bronze figure Upright Motive No. 9 at the Kansas City Sculpture Park. It stands very regally at 12 feet tall, alongside another dozen of his artworks and 30 sculptures in total, set within a 22-acre park designed by architects Dan Kiley and Jaquelin Robertson in 1989.

Upright Motive No. 9, a massive 1,200-pound upright bronze figure, depicts a human body rising from the base of the sculpture in an abstract form. Moore said that this form "was inspired by the verticality of trees and Northwest Coast American Indian totem poles" (Kansas City Sculpture Park 2009). Moore joined several other artists of his time who were considerably interested in the artistic creations of indigenous cultures. His upright figure continues a tradition that stretches back thousands of years, while also referencing the Renaissance, Baroque, and Rococo stone sculpture traditions.

Henry Moore's Artistic Influences

Born in 1898, Moore is considered the most prominent British sculptor of the 20th century (Encarta). He studied at the Leeds School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London. His early work was heavily influenced by the monumental figures of Italian Renaissance artists such as Michelangelo, the shapely forms of French sculptor Constantin Brancusi, and the organic shapes found in nature and in Egyptian, Sumerian, and African sculptures. Later, Pablo Picasso became a major influence, as did other abstract artists.

Moore was an avid collector of art from indigenous cultures, in addition to stones, skulls, and bones, all of which influenced his sculpture. Above all, it was the natural world that affected him most, particularly its connection to the human body. "The human figure," he stated, "is what interests me most deeply, but I have found principles of form and rhythm from the study of natural objects, such as pebbles, rocks, bones, trees, plants" (Encarta). Surrealism, which tended toward abstract and organic forms, was also a major influence. Moore loved to create moving forms of women sitting or reclining; male and female couples, mother and child, and family units were among the recurring themes of his works (Encarta).

The setting of the Kansas City Sculpture Park is ideal for Moore's works. In his article about the park, Russell (1989) wrote on the occasion of its opening: "It is never dull for a moment, and we can imagine Henry Moore humming and sniffing and conjecturing every inch of the way. Much that has been planted is still far short of maturity, but we are left in no doubt that in the year 1999 this will be a great place for meditation, tree-watching and the discreet plighting of troths." The architects of the Kansas City Sculpture Park succeeded in making visitors forget that the park sits amidst a large city, surrounded by busy, trafficked roads.

The Park Setting and Critical Reception

Moore's upright forms are commonly compared to primitive sources, such as Celtic crosses or totem poles. Herbert Read saw these bronze sculptures as "apparitions," or "primordial images projected from the deepest level of the unconscious, and they illustrate the truth that the artist is essentially the instrument of unconscious forces" (Mitchinson 1998, p. 246). Others view the uprights as Moore's reflection on World War I — specifically as bombs cut in half lengthways to reveal their internal workings, producing a long, smooth, rounded shape at the back and a complex series of mechanical forms at the front. In this reading, Moore anthropomorphizes the bombs by adding facial features. Regardless of interpretation, these sculptures are highly abstract and ambivalent, affecting different viewers in different ways (Mitchinson 1998).

It is most likely the case, however, that Moore's uprights are not dark or pessimistic recreations of bombs. When he first saw the prehistoric stone monoliths at Stonehenge in the 1930s, he was elated and began experimenting with new types of sculpture: "I started by balancing different forms one above the other — with results rather like the Northwest totem poles" (Mitchinson 1998).