Reflections on Henry Moore's The Archer

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to see Henry Moore's The Archer as I passed by the Toronto City Hall. Now, I wish I could adequately describe the piece, but truth is, I think anyone would have difficulty trying to convey what it looks like. The best description I could come up with was "bronze, large, flowing, and blob-like", which really says very little. I could say that it looks like an archer, but honestly, it looks like an archer about as much as it looks like a horse. Or a bent spoon. Or almost anything you can imagine. So, to make up for this deficiency of description, here is a photo of the sculpture itself:


(If the above picture doesn't work, visit the link here)

Admittedly, from this angle, it definitely has a resemblance to an archer. The bow is on the right, and the form on the right is the archer's torso, postured upright and leaning back ever so slightly as he nocks the arrow on the bowstring. The grooves near the top of the bow could represent the archer's hand, and there is definitely a sharpness where the bowstring meets the bow. Nevertheless, this is all with the prior knowledge that it is called "The Archer" and looking at it from the right angle - I would be surprised if someone called it an archer without previously knowing that it was supposed to be one.

On that note, interestingly enough, the official name for this piece is not "The Archer" but rather "Three-Way Piece No. 2". It was designed by Henry Moore and installed in Nathan Phillips Square in 1966, placing it out of the classical era of modernism (but still sharing many modernist characteristics). Moore was a British architect and sculptor, and best well known for his flowing, free-form bronze sculptures (like The Archer). More information on Henry Moore is available here. Some of his other sculptures that I found interesting (and actually, more aesthetically pleasing than "The Archer") include Double Oval and Hill Arches . Needless to say, the concept of flowing curves (and flow in general) is crucial in both Moore's work and in modernism in general.

As an aside, the Toronto City Hall, outside which "The Archer" is placed, is also considered a great work of modernist architecture. A nice view of it can be seen here. Designed by Viljo Revell, from the air, it looks like a "giant, unblinking eye", thus its nickname of "The Eye of the Government". Apparently when it was first opened in 1965, many people felt that it was much too futuristic for the city, and ill-fitting neighboring the surrounding buildings - not the first time this has happened with modernist architecture.