''Three Piece Sculpture: Vertebrae'' (LH 580) is an abstract

bronze sculpture Bronze is the most popular metal for Casting (metalworking), cast metal sculptures; a cast bronze sculpture is often called simply "a bronze". It can be used for statues, singly or in groups, reliefs, and small statuettes and figurines, as w ...

by Henry Moore.

LH 578

The three part sculpture looks back to his earlier multi-part sculptures of human figures, and also his interlocking works such as ''Two Piece Sculpture No. 7: Pipe'' from 1966. Moore started with a plaster maquette in 1968 (LH 578), with three interlocking elements inspired by bones or

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and sta ...

LH 579

He created a second larger plaster working model, which was cast in bronze in 1968 as his '' Working Model for Three Piece No.3: Vertebrae'' (LH 579), in an edition of eight (plus an artist's copy, which is at the Tate Gallery in London). It measures . Other casts are held by the

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was desig ...

in Washington D.C., the

Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; french: Musée des beaux-arts de l'Ontario) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The museum is located in the Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, on Dundas Street West between McCaul and Bev ...

in Toronto, and Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, New York, and the

Nasher Sculpture Center Opened in 2003, the Nasher Sculpture Center is a museum in Dallas, Texas, that houses the Patsy and Raymond Nasher collection of modern and contemporary sculpture. It is located on a site adjacent to the Dallas Museum of Art in the Dallas Art ...

in Dallas. Others are in private collections. One example was sold at Christie's in 2012 for over £5m.

LH 580

The working model was scaled up in 1968–69 into a full-size bronze sculpture, measuring x x (LH 580). The full-size sculpture was cast in edition of three (plus one for the artist). One example is installed outside the

Safeco Plaza Safeco Plaza (formerly known as 1001 Fourth Avenue Plaza, the Seafirst Building, and the Seattle-First National Bank Building) is a 50-story skyscraper in Downtown Seattle, Washington, United States. Designed by the Naramore, Bain, Brady, and ...

(1001 4th Avenue) in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region ...

. It was surveyed and deemed "well maintained" by the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

's "

Save Outdoor Sculpture! Save Outdoor Sculpture! (SOS!) was a community-based effort to identify, document, and conserve outdoor sculpture in the United States. The program was initiated in 1989 and ended in 1999. History Save Outdoor Sculpture! was initiated by Herit ...

" program in May 1995. The others are at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, and the Landesbausparkasse in Münster, with the artist's copy at the

Henry Moore Foundation The Henry Moore Foundation is a registered charity in England, established for education and promotion of the fine arts — in particular, to advance understanding of the works of Henry Moore. The charity was set up with a gift from the arti ...

in Perry Green, Hertfordshire.

LH 580a

''Three Forms Vertebrae'' (LH 580a), also known as ''Dallas Piece'' or ''Vertebrae'', is an abstract

by Henry Moore. It was cast in 1978–79, specifically for a site outside

I.M. Pei Ieoh Ming Pei
– website of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners ( ; ; April 26, 1917 – May 16, 2019) was ...

Dallas City Hall Dallas City Hall is the seat of municipal government of the city of Dallas, Texas, United States. It is located at 1500 Marilla in the Government District of downtown Dallas. The current building, the city's fifth city hall, was completed in 19 ...

, and is the largest version of a sculpture that Moore created in 1968. Moore was commissioned in 1978 to create a sculpture to stand in the City Centre Park Plaza outside the

, for which he scaled up his 1968–69 work ''Three Piece Sculpture: Vertebrae'' (LH 580).

References

{{Public art in Seattle Abstract sculptures in Washington (state) Bronze sculptures in Washington (state) Outdoor sculptures in Dallas Outdoor sculptures in Seattle Sculptures by Henry Moore

LH 578

LH 579

LH 580

LH 580a

See also

References