Henry Moore. [Knife-Edge Woman.] "Standing Figure Knife Edged." Embarcadaro Center, Alcoa Building Plaza. San Francisco.
Reference information
Reference photo of sculpture
1. Physical Location. The sculpture is located in an outdoor Plaza, two levels above the street. The Plaza is surrounded by high-rise office-buildings. At noon, these buildings cut off direct sunlight, putting the Plaza into shadow. Despite the enclosed situation of the Plaza, it is not sheltered. Middle-distance views open between the office-buildings. Traffic noise from the street below rushes in a low roar, like a wind. The setting is technological, megalithic; it overpowers the small grass beds on the Plaza and the Plaza lacks ability to refresh the spirit.
The sculpture is located on the north side of the Plaza in a shallow open brick pit, which is surrounded by grass plots and small shrubs. The entire alcove is enclosed by an austere black wrought iron fence. The effect of the fence is to ward off viewers and to isolate the sculpture. In England's open countryside, Moore's sculpture rises and dominates - not only in scale, but also in spirit - the heath, field, and forest to which it is organically linked. Here, from a distance, the figure is sullen and suppressed; indeed, it cannot be viewed at all until one is immediately next to it.
2. Physical Description. The sculpture is about eight feet high and 2 1/2 feet wide. It is placed on a 2 foot polished granite pedestal and on a 3" bronze base bolted into the granite. The sculpture is cast bronze in a burnt ochre color, treated with acid to give a green-bronze weathering effect.
The sculpture is shaped of long, simple, occasionally broken, up-sweeping lines. Hence:
(Click image to enlarge)
The figure and lines are directly reminiscent of the Winged Victory of Samothrace.
3. Geometrical Analysis. The figure is a modified pyramid, stretched out into curvilinear lines. Viewed from the side the figure has a definite broken diagonal line, leaning slightly at the top; hence:
(Click image to enlarge)
The geometrical structure provides security and strength for the figure at its base, adequate for the lift, majesty, and power of the upper torso.
4. Surface. The surface is rough and raw, like natural stone. The marks from the plaster tools remain undistinguished. Coloration is warm ochre with little distraction from the acid-treatment bronze green.
5. Mass and Gravity. Mass is distributed throughout the sculpture in an attitude of tension. Mass pulls down, while major bones poke out like cantilevers supported from the inner frame, resisting the downward pull of gravity. The thick mid-torso provides the feeling of the weight at the base pulling down the mass from the supports above and at the same time suggest the upward lift of inner spirit. From the frontal view, the figure has a large mass at the upper torso - the shoulders and perhaps breasts thrust forward - as is traditional in artistic depictions of victory as a woman. There is bravery, defiance, confidence, and forward movement in the upper torso. From the side view, the torso stands straight up, thereby suggesting strength and waiting, but waiting against some onslaught of force, for which the figure needs the reinforcement of the pyramidal shape.
6. Emotive content. The sculpture demonstrates spiritual power lifting up, straining successfully, against matter, to which it is - ironically - organically rooted and out of which it rises. The strength and solidity of the piece, despite the planar lines out of which it is built, suggest the success and endurance of this spirit. At the same time, the tension in the lines reveal the continual effort needed by the spirit and the eternity of its struggle against matter and mass.
The mythic qualities of the theme of the sculpture are reinforced by the sculptor's obviously intentional reference to the form of the winged victory of Samothrace. The Greek goddess has been transported to English soil in an English mind, transformed from an allegorical figure to an abstracted natural form of organic qualities.
In all of this, Moore's sculpture seems as out of place in the Alcoa Building Plaza as would be a classic figure.
Nevertheless, in this technical and drab urban setting, the sculpture does serve to remind us of the eternal struggle of the spirit against the squalor of matter abused; and by the optimism of the figure, to give us hope.
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