Upright Motive No. 1: Glenkiln Cross

Upright Motive No. 1: Glenkiln Cross

Artist	Henry Moore
Year	1955-56
Type	Bronze
Dimensions	333.7 cm × 97.5 cm × 97 cm (131 3⁄8 in × 38 3⁄8 in × 38 in)

Upright Motive No. 1: Glenkiln Cross is a bronze sculpture by Henry Moore, cast in a number of copies in 1955-56. It was the first of a series of narrow vertical sculptures by Moore, who compared them to totem poles.^[1]

Edition

Washington, D.C.

There are versions in Glenkiln Sculpture Park, in Dumfries and Galloway, south-west Scotland, from where it takes its name,^[2] the Kroller-Muller Museum in Otterlo in the Netherlands, the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas,^[3] and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C..^[4][5] Some of these are mounted in a row with others of the "Upright Motive" series, as at Otterlo and Fort Worth; three in a row producing a reminiscence of the three crosses in the Crucifixion of Jesus.

History

Moore described how the original idea came from a commission for an Olivetti building in Milan, where he "visited the site and a lone Lombardy poplar growing behind the building convinced me that a vertical work would act as the correct counterfoil to the horizontal rhythm of the building. This idea grew ultimately into the 'Upright Motifs'."^[6] Between 1951 and 1976, Sir William Keswick, who owned the Glenkiln estate, bought and arranged works by Henry Moore, Jacob Epstein, and Auguste Rodin, creating the world's first collection of sculpture in a landscape setting, Glenkiln Sculpture Park. Moore and Keswick installed the first cast of the cross on a hilltop, where they saw a shepherd and his flock;^[7] Moore said "From a distance it looks rather like one of the old Celtic crosses."^[8]

Gallery

• 

  Three of the Upright Motives in Otterlo; No. 1 in the middle

• 

  Left side, Washington

• 

  Right side, Washington

• 

  title card in Washington

See also

• List of public art in Washington, D.C., Ward 2

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Glenkiln Sculptures.

Henry Moore Sculptures Three Standing Figures 1947 Reclining Figure: Festival Draped Reclining Figure, 1952–53 Large Interior Form, 1953-54 Upright Motive No. 1: Glenkiln Cross Seated Woman, 1957 Draped Seated Woman 1957–58 Draped Reclining Woman 1957–58 King and Queen Knife Edge Two Piece 1962–65 Three-Piece Reclining Figure No. 2: Bridge Prop Three-Piece No. 3: Vertebrae (Working Model) Man Enters the Cosmos Two-Piece Reclining Figure No. 9 Nuclear Energy Spindle Piece Reclining Figure 1969–70 Two-Piece Reclining Figure: Points Large Four Piece Reclining Figure 1972–73 The Arch 1979–1980 Three Piece Sculpture: Vertebrae Assistants Anthony Caro Phillip King Richard Wentworth Isaac Witkin Associated with Barbara Hepworth Supporters Kenneth Clark Institutions Henry Moore Foundation