The rosy color and round, curving shapes in The Three Rings may evoke a living being that changes as you move around the work. At the same time, the abstract sculpture weighs over 2,000 pounds and does not attempt to hide its veined, porous marble surface. Henry Moore was invested in creating organic, human forms but also wanted to make work that emitted “the energy and power of great mountains.” The Three Rings emerges from these two seemingly contradictory desires. Moore chose Red Soraya marble—taken from quarries in Iran—specifically for its ability to evoke both organic life and inorganic matter, a juxtaposition that he first encountered while studying the figurative stonework created by Mezcala artists from ancient western Mexico (500–200 BCE).