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拍品专文
The figures in Henry Moore's sculptures rarely engage in gestures of extrovert display. Mothers may embrace or cradle their children, but Moore's single figures, in their typically seated or reclining positions, usually hold their arms close to their sides, or angle them to support their bodies. This lack of gesture does not necessarily imply an emotional aloofness on the part of the sculptor, rather it relates to the significant structural difficulties in carving or casting a fully extended or raised arm as part of a sizable sculpture—the arms, together with the ankles, are often the most fragile parts of a standing figure. Given the large, block-like mass of most Moore sculptures, which the sculptor related to landscape forms, a raised or extended arm should be a rarity, and so it is in Moore's oeuvre—the present Working Model for Seated Figure: Arms Outstretched is the only major Moore sculpture that exhibits this gesture. Moore additionally decided to put the sculpture on a round base which is rare in his output. This accentuates its versatility, there is no “front”, but is rather intended to be viewed from almost any angle.
No less striking and unusual than the outstretched arms in this Seated Figure is the large hole in her head. Moore frequently defined the faces of his figures with a pair of small, shallow holes for eyes, or with a single sizable concavity, as if the face were simply a mouth only. To pierce the head of the woman with such a large, gaping hole, making it like the huge eye of a needle, is an extreme but effective measure that opens up the sculpture, while adding a further note of uncertainty concerning the woman's emotional state and the nature of her expression. Moore wrote, "For me the hole is not just a round hole. It is the penetration though the front of the block to the back. This was for me a great revelation, a great mental effort... The hole as form—there is as much shape in a hole as in a lump...There's no doubt a deep psychological explanation of the fascination of the hole" (quoted in A. Wilkinson, ed., Henry Moore: Writings and Conversations, Berkeley, 2002, pp. 206 and 207).
No less striking and unusual than the outstretched arms in this Seated Figure is the large hole in her head. Moore frequently defined the faces of his figures with a pair of small, shallow holes for eyes, or with a single sizable concavity, as if the face were simply a mouth only. To pierce the head of the woman with such a large, gaping hole, making it like the huge eye of a needle, is an extreme but effective measure that opens up the sculpture, while adding a further note of uncertainty concerning the woman's emotional state and the nature of her expression. Moore wrote, "For me the hole is not just a round hole. It is the penetration though the front of the block to the back. This was for me a great revelation, a great mental effort... The hole as form—there is as much shape in a hole as in a lump...There's no doubt a deep psychological explanation of the fascination of the hole" (quoted in A. Wilkinson, ed., Henry Moore: Writings and Conversations, Berkeley, 2002, pp. 206 and 207).