Sculpture, for me, must have life in it, vitality. It must have a feeling for organic form, a certain pathos and warmth... A sculpture must have its own life... it should make the observer feel that what he is seeing contains within itself its own organic energy thrusting outwards.
The subject of the reclining figure is one of the most important motifs of Henry Moore’s oeuvre. Initially inspired by Mexican sculpture, this theme recurs throughout the artist’s career, in both figurative and near abstract forms.
In his use of strings in this and other sculptures conceived around 1939, Moore references the influence of Naum Gabo and his interest in the articulation of the interior sculptural space, an aspect of sculpting that was also of great interest to Barbara Hepworth. This practice is also an extension of Moore’s interest in the intersection of solid form and space.
Negative curvature… is characteristic of much modern work, as are subtle inflections and the use of nodal points.
Moore began using strings in his artistic practice in 1937, having nurtured his fascination with the Science Museum’s collects ion of mathematical models during his t.mes at the Royal College of Art in London in the early 1920s. Called ‘descriptive geometry’, the models featured strings stretched across brass frames to visualise mathematical equations. Although there is no specific reason known for Moore’s use of strings beginning in 1937, a fascination with similar mathematical models was widespread in the artistic practice of the mid-late 1930s.
Artists following the practices of Constructivism and Surrealism had also identified the aesthetic potential of such mathematical models. In 1936, similar models to those examined by Moore were included in the Surrealist exhibition Exposition surréaliste d’objets at the Galerie Ratton in Paris. Two years prior, at the urging of Max Ernst, Man Ray had photographed these same models, demonstrating how truly widespread their influence was. It is also likely that Moore met Man Ray in London in June 1936.
As a result of this cross-pollination, so similar were the workings of artists at this period, that art historian Steven Nash noted:
It is now impossible to establish a chronology of who did what exactly when.
In 1968, Moore expounded on his interest in strings:
Undoubtedly the source of my stringed figures was the Science Museum ... I was fascinated by the mathematical models I saw there, which had been made to illustrate the difference of the form that is half-way between a square and a circle. One model had a square stone end with twenty holes along each side making eighty holes in all. Through these holes strings were threaded and led to a circle with the same number of holes at the other end. A plane interposed through the middle shows the form that is halfway between a square and a circle. One end could also be twisted to produce forms that would be terribly difficult to draw on a flat surface. It wasn’t the scientific study of these models but the ability to look through the strings as with a bird cage and to see one form within another which excited me.
Reclining Stringed Figure demonstrates the influence of these models in the way the tautness of the wire contrasts with the curvilinear contours of the polished bronze figure. It encloses and intersects the interior space, still allowing air to travel through the form. Above all, the presence of the strings disrupts the gaze of the viewer, leading it off in different directions and encouraging the spectator’s gaze to follow the sculpture’s entire length, provoking an awareness of the space both within and surrounding the sculpture. The strings also form a tie between the various peaks and troughs of the anthropomorphic prone form, uniting the two concepts into one flowing entity.