: The Modern Monument
Also on view is a trio of monumentally-scaled figurative bronzes by British sculptor Henry Moore made between 1948 and 1963, which, when seen together, trace his increasingly abstract treatment of the human body. They now share the Garden with Auguste Rodin’s Monument to Balzac (1898, cast 1954), commissioned in honor of one of France’s greatest novelists, which is less a representation of Honore de Balzac’s physical likeness than an idea or spirit of the man. Favorites like Picasso’s She-Goat (1950) and Joan Miró’s Moonbird (1966) are also featured alongside works by Alberto Giacometti, Henri Matisse, Barnett Newman, and others. United Enemies I (2011) by Thomas Schütte, who also lives and works in Germany, comprises two pairs of massive bronze human figures, each roped together in eternal antipathy. These works extend a long tradition of addressing contemporary culture through monumental sculpture.
