Reclining figure
In 1957, the UNESCO “Committee on Architecture and Works of Art”, in collaboration with the Committee of art advisors, chose eleven artists to undertake the task of decorating the permanent Headquarters in Paris, inaugurated in 1958. This Committee included the building’s architects, Bernard Zehrfuss, Marcel Breuer, Luigi Nervi, as well as C. Para-Perez who presided over a committee of art advisors responsible for providing guidance in the choice of works. In this context, UNESCO commissioned a sculpture from Henry Moore to be placed at the center of the piazza in front of the newly built headquarters building. In 1965, on the occasion of the extension of the Organization’s office space, the sculpture was moved next to one of the Building IV patios (located in the piazza).
From the beginning, Moore felt that his sculpture and the architecture of the UNESCO building ought to be in harmony. The preparatory drawings for this sculpture kept by the British Museum (London) or the working models kept at Tate Modern (London) or the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto (Canada) illustrate Moore’s decision to apply to his sculpture a horizontal treatment coherent with the horizontal lines of the building in the background. The travertine marble, often used in the building, created a contrast with the shadowy reflections of the work in the windows behind. In Querceta in Italy, at the foot of the Carrara mountains, Henry Moore worked for about a year on his sculpture. "Reclining Figure", the biggest sculpture Moore ever made, had to be transported to Paris in four pieces.
Henry Moore’s sculpture seems to be a form which is both human and of the earth itself: an archetype of the fertile Earth-Mother. The desire, always present in Moore’s work, to penetrate beneath the surface, led him to create a figure whose life does not only rest in the massive block of stone but also in the empty spaces where the light penetrates. "Reclining Figure" invites the spectator to consider it from different angles provoking new revelations each time. The frontal view presents a gigantic body of rounded forms and an admirable balance between the smaller vertical torso and the massive rock-like aspect of the legs. The back, seen usually against the light from the entrance hall, is bathed in a sunlight that filters through the holes of the breasts and thighs.