“Sculpture, for me, must have life in it, vitality. It must have a feeling for organic form, a certain pathos and warmth. Purely abstract sculpture seems to me to be an activity that would be better fulfilled in another art, such as architecture. That is why I have never been tempted to remain a purely abstract sculptor... A sculpture must have its own life.”
Henry Moore was a British artist best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures inspired by the human body and natural forms. He pioneered a new vision for modern sculpture, becoming a global star within his own lifetime, and his art continues to inspire generations to come. Moore’s sculptures are widely collected by globally renowned museums, including the Henry Moore Foundation, Leeds, Tate Britain, London, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, The Hakone Open-Air Museum and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. One of the highlights of this season’s Modern Evening Auction, Three-quarter figure: lines once belonged to a prominent collection of Nina and Gordon Bunshaft, then bequeathed to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. With this distinguished provenance, the present work is a remarkable museum-grade treasure that contains the best elements of Moore’s ground-breaking modern sculptures.
Three-quarter figure: lines is one of the best examples of the artist’s radical definition of space and interpretation of the human figure, transforming the very concept of modern sculpture and boldly defining a style that Moore had practiced for decades. With its abstracted attenuation of the human body, the present work marked a crowning achievement in the artist's quest for balance, as he once said:
“There are three fundamental poses of the human figure. One is standing, the other is seated, and the third is lying down.”
Moore concentrated on the reclining figure, and this pose far outnumbered seated or standing figures in his work. A standing figure is particularly challenging because the upright posture allows little variance compared with the other two, and more practically, the weight of the materials can be distributed more evenly in a horizontal figure.
The standing or upright pose is not as passive or receptive as a reclining pose, exerting a confrontational manner that commands attention. This upright figure possesses the advantage in projecting a more active and potentially heroic sensibility, as opposed to the sensuousness of the female form in his other reclining subjects. In the present work, the artist utilizes the potential of the surrealistic manipulation of shapes to imbue the entire object with an organic potency. The breast-like shapes that compose the present work are at once abstract and provocative, toying with the juxtaposition of contrasting vantage points.
「我認為，雕塑必須有生命的氣息，有活力。它的形態必須是有機的，擁有某種悲憫和溫情。在我看來，純粹抽象的雕塑更適合透過其它藝術形式，例如建築，來呈現。因此我從未想過做一個純粹的抽象雕塑家……雕塑必須有自己的生命。」
英國藝術家亨利．摩爾以創作半抽象巨型青銅雕塑而著稱，靈感源自人體和自然形態。他為現代雕塑開闢了新視角，在世期間已成為聞名全球的一代宗師。由逝世至今，他的雕塑作品對後世影響依然深遠，被收藏於世界各地的知名博物館，包括亨利．摩爾基金會、倫敦泰特不列顛美術館、多倫多安大略美術館、箱根雕刻森林美術館和紐約所羅門．R．古根海姆博物館等。《四分之三人物：線條》是今季現代藝術晚間的焦點之一，它曾屬於著名的妮娜和戈登．邦沙夫特收藏系列，後來被遺贈予紐約現代藝術博物館。此博物館級作品具備如此顯赫的來源歷史，並蘊含現代雕塑的最佳元素，堪稱為頂級非凡的珍品傑作。
《四分之三人物：線條》這件雕塑作品，為摩爾在過往數十年來試圖徹底改變對空間的定義，以及重新詮釋人體的範例之一，見證藝術家改寫了現代雕塑的根本概念與傳統表現。作品透過抽象的方式削弱人體的意象，標誌著摩爾在微妙平衡方面取得巔峰成就。他曾說：
「人體有三種基本姿勢，一種是站立，另一種是坐著，第三種則是躺著。」
他專注創作仰臥姿勢的作品，其數量遠比坐著或站著的要多。站姿雕塑尤其具挑戰性，因為與其他兩種姿勢相比，站姿的變化較小，而且一個更為實際的理由是，相比直立的站姿，雕塑在躺著呈現的水平姿勢，其材質重量的分佈更為平均，變相更容易掌握。
站立或直立姿勢不像仰臥姿勢那樣被動或隨和，它們表現出心存對抗的態度，吸引觀者直視關注。此作所採用的直立姿勢，旨在展現出更為積極主動的態度，以及潛在於人類內心的英雄主義，與摩爾其他女性仰臥雕塑所呈現的肉欲感官大相徑庭。在此作，那乳房似的形狀結構既抽象又具挑逗意味。摩爾利用這些超現實的形狀，將截然不同的視角觀點巧妙並置，為雕塑注入生命力與無限可能性，實在是匠心獨妙，無與倫比。