Focus on this artwork and discuss the History.
According to the Henry Moore Foundation: Over the years Moore made a large and varied number of drawings in which the reclining figure is almost supine yet with acutely uplifted knees. Three Piece Reclining Figure: No.2: Bridge Prop, an enlarged and more angular version of Three Piece Reclining Figure 1963 (LH 513a), takes the idea of separating or fragmenting the figure to an extreme level. The three elements are pulled far away from each other, appearing disparate and disjointed on the flat expanse of the base, so that connecting them and their intervening negative spaces to form a sculptural whole places considerable demands on the viewer.
Moore himself said:The two-piece sculptures pose a problem of relationship: the kind of relationship between two people. It’s very different once you divide a thing into three. In the two-piece you have just the head end and the body end, or the head end and the leg end, but once you get the three-piece you have the middle and the two ends; and this became something that I wanted to do.
Henry Moore Foundation Henry Moore