Three Way Piece Number 1: Points (1964)

by Henry Moore (1898 - 1986)

Title

Three Way Piece Number 1: Points
Artist

Henry Moore (1898 - 1986)
Year

1964; installed 1967; relocated 1990
Location

Benjamin Franklin Parkway between 16th and 17th Streets
Medium

Bronze, on black granite base
Dimensions

Height 7’3″; width 7’5″; depth 6’5″ (base height 4″, width 7', depth 7')

Purchased by the Association for Public Art (formerly the Fairmount Park Art Association)

Owned by the Association for Public Art

Museum Without Walls Audio

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“Sculpture,” said Henry Moore, “should always at first sight have some obscurities, and further meanings.” His one-ton bronze on the Parkway is an example of such visual ambiguities. It may appear to be a massive, polished, three-pointed stone – and in fact Moore kept a similarly shaped pebble in his studio for years. On the other hand, the bronze also looks like a weighty animal, with its three “points” like paws on which it delicately balances. Some have said that it resembles a hunched bird. From certain angles it even suggests a giant tooth or a gnawed bone. Whatever one’s first impression may be, the work changes as the viewer walks around it.

Three young adult friends hanging out, sitting together on the grass and under some trees, next to the abstract bronze Henry Moore sculpture on the Parkway in Philadelphia. It's a sunny day in early September and the grass and leaves are still bright green. — Photo © Caitlin Martin for the Association for Public Art

Philadelphia’s Three Way Piece was purchased by the Association for Public Art (formerly the Fairmount Park Art Association) in 1967 and installed in John F. Kennedy Plaza (now known as LOVE Park) that year. In November 1990 the sculpture was relocated to Cret Park, a nearby landscaped area along the Parkway at 16th Street.

Adapted from Public Art in Philadelphia by Penny Balkin Bach (Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1992).

Voices heard in the Museum Without Walls: AUDIO program: Mei-Ling Hom is a sculptor and installation artist in Philadelphia. She is known for her explorations of form in space. She works with various tactile materials including bronze, stone, and clay. Michael R. Taylor is the former Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Taylor is the author of Henry Moore: A Centennial Salute and the curator of the companion exhibition. | Segment Producer: Jonathan Mitchell