Henry Moore Works in Public
This is a guide to Moore's sculptures on public display throughout the world. We strive to ensure that all information is accurate, however we recommend that you contact each venue before making a visit. Please also contact us if you spot any mistakes. In some instances it has not been possible to source an image of the actual sculpture in-situ, and on such occasions an alternative image has been used.
Tehran
Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art
bronze
height 110cm
Oval with Points is one of a number of sculptures featuring points that almost touch, creating a palpable sense of tension and drama. A drawing of 1940, Pointed Forms (HMF 1496), now in the Albertina, Vienna, containing many sketches on the same page, appears to be the earliest reference. This shows a figure 8 turned on its side among studies that include a drawing for Three Points 1939-40 (LH 211), the earliest sculpture on the theme. A small stone in Moore’s maquette studio showing two points touching at the centre of a hollowed-out oval is likely to have been a later inspiration. Moore himself cited various sources as influences for his interest in pointed forms, ranging from spark plugs to the School of Fontainebleau portrait of Gabrielle d’Estrée and her sister and Michelangelo’s God Creating Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
In Oval with Points, the points strain towards each other but fail to meet, giving a dynamic tenseness to the voluptuous forms of the exterior of the work. There is no suggestion of aggression; the points appear to grow out of the exterior form towards the interior in flowing, organic movement. It has been noted that the unevenly weighted holes above and below the points seem to suggest the division between head and torso.