''Knife Edge Two Piece 1962–65'' is an abstract bronze sculpture by

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi- abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. As well as sculpture, Moore produced ...

. It is one of Moore's earliest sculptures in two pieces, a mode that he started to adopt in 1959. Its form was inspired by the shape of a bone fragment. Moore created the sculpture from an edition of 10 working models in 1962; these working models are now in public collections. Moore created four full-size casts between 1962 and 1965, with one retained by him. The three casts are on public display on

College Green College Green or The College Green may refer to: * College Green, Adelaide outdoor venue at the University of Adelaide * College Green, Bristol, England * College Green (Dartmouth College), New Hampshire, primarily known as "the Green" * College ...

in Westminster,

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

; Queen Elizabeth Park in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

; and the garden at

Kykuit Kykuit ( ), known also as the John D. Rockefeller Estate, is a 40-room historic house museum in Pocantico Hills, a hamlet in the town of Mount Pleasant, New York 25 miles north of New York City. The house was built for oil tycoon and Rockefelle ...

, the house of the

Rockefeller family The Rockefeller family () is an American industrial, political, and banking family that owns one of the world's largest fortunes. The fortune was made in the American petroleum industry during the late 19th and early 20th centuries by brothe ...

Tarrytown, New York Tarrytown is a village in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, approximately north of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, and is served by a stop on the Metro-North ...

. Moore's own cast is on display at his former studio and estate, 'Hoglands' in Perry Green, Hertfordshire in southern England. A similar work, ''Mirror Knife Edge 1977'' (or ''Knife Edge Mirror Two Piece''), is displayed at the entrance to

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

's east wing of the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

The Westminster cast was donated by Moore through the Contemporary Art Society to what he believed was the City of London, but its actual ownership was undetermined for many years. The Westminster cast subsequently fell into disrepair, and was restored in 2013 after it became part of the British Parliamentary Art Collection; it was granted a Grade II* listing in January 2016.Knife Edge Two Piece Sculpture
Historic England

Background

By 1960 Moore was moving on from his earlier works, directly inspired by the human form and with textured surfaces, such as '' Draped Seated Woman 1957–58'', to more rounded abstract shapes, inspired by the shapes of stones or bones. Moore made a connected work in 1961, also inspired by bone, '' Standing Figure (Knife Edge)'' (LH 482).

Working model

In 1962 Moore created an edition of 10 working models (LH 504) for a new two-piece sculpture. The

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

in London acquired a small working model in 1963. Other working models are in the collections of the

Gemeentemuseum The Kunstmuseum Den Haag is an art museum in The Hague in the Netherlands, founded in 1866 as the Museum voor Moderne Kunst. Later, until 1998, it was known as Haags Gemeentemuseum, and until the end of September 2019 as Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. I ...

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

, the

Didrichsen Art Museum Didrichsen Art Museum ( fi, Didrichsenin taidemuseo, sv, Didrichsens konstmuseum) is an art museum in Helsinki, Finland. History The art museum was founded by Marie-Louise and Gunnar Didrichsen, who asked Finnish architect Viljo Revell to build ...

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

, the Memorial Art Gallery of the

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, and the Kunsthaus in Zurich. Moore planned the full-size sculpture to be over 10 feet high, large enough for a person to walk between the two elements.

Sculpture

The full-size sculpture, catalogued as "LH 516", was cast in an edition of four (or "3+1"; one being retained by the artist). Moore was inspired by the "lightness and strength of bone fragment" in creating the piece. The full-size sculptures, long and weighing about , were cast by

Hermann Noack Hermann Noack, or Noack Foundry (German: ''Bildgießerei Hermann Noack GmbH & Co.''), is a German art foundry in Berlin, named after its original proprietor and his three direct descendants, all with the same name, who have run the business. ...

in Berlin. The second cast of the work is located in Abingdon Street Gardens (better known as College Green) in the

City of Westminster The City of Westminster is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and London boroughs, borough in Inner London. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It occupies a large area of cent ...

. The other full-size casts are located near the

Bloedel Floral Conservatory The Bloedel Floral Conservatory is a conservatory and aviary that located at the top of Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. History In 1966, communities and organizations across Canada were encouraged to engage in cente ...

in Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver, BC, Canada, donated by Prentice Bloedel; near the Rose Garden of the

house at

. Moore donated his artist's copy (0/3) to 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 1977, and it is displayed at Perry Green, Hertfordshire. Moore made a larger and reversed version of the sculpture, ''Mirror Knife Edge 1977'' or ''Knife Edge Mirror Two Piece'' (LH 714) – which is 5.34x7.21x3.63m or about 17.5x23.7x11.9 feet and weighs about – which was commissioned for the entrance to

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

's east wing of the

The work is carefully cleaned and conserved each year to maintain the distinction between its shiny and

patina Patina ( or ) is a thin layer that variously forms on the surface of copper, brass, bronze and similar metals and metal alloys (tarnish produced by oxidation or other chemical processes) or certain stones and wooden furniture (sheen produced b ...

ted surfaces, as the artist intended.

Westminster cast

Knife Edge - Two Piece - Henry Moore 1962 - Westminster - London 240404

The second cast of ''Knife Edge Two Piece'' is located in Abingdon Street Gardens, also known as

, opposite the

Palace of Westminster The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parli ...

in London. In 1965

Whitney Straight Air Commodore Whitney Willard Straight, (6 November 1912 – 5 April 1979) was a Grand Prix motor racing driver, aviator, businessman, and a member of the prominent Whitney family of the United States. Early life Born in New York City, Whitn ...

, the chairman of the

Contemporary Art Society The Contemporary Art Society (CAS) is an independent charity that champions the collecting of outstanding contemporary art and craft for UK museum collections. Since its founding in 1910 the organisation has donated over 10,000 works to museums ...

, wrote to

Charles Pannell Thomas Charles Pannell, Baron Pannell, PC (10 September 1902 – 23 March 1980) was a British Labour Party politician. He entered local politics in the outer London suburbs: he was a member of Walthamstow Borough Council from 1929 to 1936 a ...

MP, the Minister of State for Public Buildings and Works to tell him that the society was "considering the possibility of ‘making a gift of a substantial work of art to be erected at some suitable site in London". The Contemporary Art Society met with Henry Moore to discuss their proposal and Moore subsequently chose the site at Abingdon Street Gardens for the sculpture. Moore waived his usual fee, and the Contemporary Art Society paid for the cost of the casting. The sculpture was unveiled by Robert Mellish, the Minister of Public Building and Works, on 1 September 1967. Moore liked the site so much that he did not even visit an alternative site in

Hyde Park Hyde Park may refer to: Places England * Hyde Park, London, a Royal Park in Central London * Hyde Park, Leeds, an inner-city area of north-west Leeds * Hyde Park, Sheffield, district of Sheffield * Hyde Park, in Hyde, Greater Manchester Austra ...

; he felt that the sculpture might have been lost in such a big park, recalling an experience he had trying to find the sculpture ''Riva'' by

Jacob Epstein Sir Jacob Epstein (10 November 1880 – 21 August 1959) was an American-British sculptor who helped pioneer modern sculpture. He was born in the United States, and moved to Europe in 1902, becoming a British subject in 1911. He often produc ...

in the park. He welcomed the fact that the sculpture would be next to a public path and would have seating nearby to allow contemplation, and compared the gardens favourably with the setting for

Hubert Le Sueur Hubert Le Sueur (c. 1580 – 1658) was a French sculptor with the contemporaneous reputation of having trained in Giambologna's Florentine workshop. He assisted Giambologna's foreman, Pietro Tacca, in Paris, in finishing and erecting the equestria ...

’s equestrian statue of Charles I at Charing Cross, "which, in order to look at closely and appreciate in detail, you have to risk your life in crossing a maze of traffic". The siting of the sculpture was disliked by some, with

Neil Marten Sir Harry Neil Marten PC (3 December 1916 – 22 December 1985) was a British Conservative Party politician. Born in Lambeth, Marten was educated at Rossall School. During World War II he was parachuted into France as part of Operation Jedburg ...

MP asking Parliament why "this lovely part of Westminster should be littered with something that looks like a crashed unidentified flying object." Moore believed he had donated the work to the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

, but the Henry Moore Foundation believed it was owned by the

, and its delivery was accepted by the

Ministry of Public Building and Works Ministry may refer to: Government * Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister * Ministry (government department), a department of a government Religion * Christian mi ...

.Who owns this damaged masterpiece by Henry Moore?
The Art Newspaper, 17 October 2011 The land where it is situated was a bombsite in the Second World War, and is owned by the

Parliamentary Estate The Parliamentary Estate is the land and buildings used by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The most notable part of the Parliamentary Estate is the Palace of Westminster, where the chambers of both houses of Parliament (the Commons and t ...

;

Westminster City Council Westminster City Council is the local authority for the City of Westminster in Greater London, England. The city is divided into 20 wards, each electing three councillors. The council is currently composed of 31 Labour Party members and 23 Cons ...

operates a car park underneath. The sculpture was moved and placed on a plinth in 1969. No formal arrangements were ever made for the ownership and care of ''Knife Edge Two Piece'', and it fell into a state of disrepair. Though it is worth an estimated £5m, no conservation work ever took place on the sculpture, and its ownership was unresolved until the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

agreed to take responsibility for it. ''Knife Edge Two Piece'' entered the Parliamentary Art Collection in 2011. It was granted a Grade II* listing in January 2016.

Restoration

The Chair of the House of Commons Works of Art Committee, Frank Doran MP, had been concerned by the appearance of the sculpture and enquired of the

Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries In the Government of the United Kingdom, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Arts and Heritage is a ministerial post in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The post is usually a junior to middle-ranking minister to the more ...

Ed Vaizey Edward Henry Butler Vaizey, Baron Vaizey of Didcot, (born 5 June 1968) is a British politician, media columnist, political commentator and barrister who was Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries from 2010 to 2016. A memb ...

MP, what plans there were for its care and maintenance. Vaizey replied that the House of Commons should take ownership of the statue and responsibility for its care. Vaizey subsequently described ''Knife Edge Two Piece'' as "one of the most televised works of art in London". Restoration work was originally planned to be completed in time for the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

in London, but was not begun until February 2013. Due to a lack of maintenance, the protective lacquer covering ''Knife Edge Two Piece'' degraded and exposed the surface of the sculpture to the elements. This resulted in

oxidation Redox (reduction–oxidation, , ) is a type of chemical reaction in which the oxidation states of substrate change. Oxidation is the loss of electrons or an increase in the oxidation state, while reduction is the gain of electrons or a d ...

of the bronze metal. Subsequent deterioration of the

tion and years of

graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

scratched into the surface resulted in further corrosion. The conservation aimed to remove the remaining protective lacquer and surface dirt, and to remove the result of corrosion and oxidation from the sculpture, and take the surface back to the bare metal. Following the removal of graffiti the sculpture was repatinated to return it to its original colour. It was finally waxed with a weatherproof surface to protect it from future damage. The conservation work was undertaken by Rupert Harris Conservation, working in consultation with the

. The cost of the conservation was £16,190, with £11,000 contributed by the Henry Moore Foundation.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Knife Edge Two Piece 1962-65 1965 sculptures Articles containing video clips Bronze sculptures in Canada Bronze sculptures in New York (state) Bronze sculptures in the United Kingdom Grade II* listed buildings in the City of Westminster Grade II* listed public art Outdoor sculptures in Canada Outdoor sculptures in London Outdoor sculptures in New York (state) Sculptures by Henry Moore Tourist attractions in the City of Westminster