Three Motives against Wall No. 2 1959

Henry Moore made this sculpture, Three Motives against Wall No. 2, with bronze. He’s got these three biomorphic forms arranged in a row, right? They’re set against this textured wall, almost like characters on a stage. I wonder what it was like for Moore, coaxing these shapes out of the material, feeling the weight and resistance of the bronze? I imagine him turning each form in his hands, searching for the right balance, the perfect curve. The wall in the background is like a landscape, maybe a primordial one. The forms themselves are so suggestive, like bones or seeds or torsos, yet they resist any easy definition. They remind me of other sculptors who were working at the time, like Barbara Hepworth, all feeling their way towards a new kind of abstraction, one rooted in the body and the natural world. Artists are always in conversation with each other across time, riffing on each other's ideas, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. To me, this sculpture feels like an invitation to slow down, to look closely, and to let our imaginations run wild.