Henry Moore

The Three Rings

1966

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Henry Moore

The Three Rings

Henry Moore

The Three Rings

1966

Physical Qualities Red Soraya marble, Overall: 39 x 100 x 62 in., 5000 lb. (99.1 x 254 x 157.5 cm.)

Credit Line Gift of Ryda and Robert H. Levi, Baltimore

Object Number 1987.225

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).

The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 1987; Ryda H. and Robert H. Levi Foundation, Lutherville, MD by purchase, 1968; Marlborough Fine Arts, London

Baltimore Museum of Art, "Crosscurrents: Works from the Contemporary Collection," Rotunda, February 26 - June 2025.

Henry Moore Foundation. "Henry Moore Illustrated Online Catalogue Raisonné." Accessed July 30, 2019. http://www.henry-moore.org/collections/catalogue-raisonne