Nuclear Energy

Nuclear Energy, 1967

Henry Moore

University of Chicago campus

Ellis Avenue between 56^th and 57^th Streets

            This 12-foot high bronze sculpture by renowned British sculptor Henry Moore (1989-1986) stands on the site where a team of scientists, led by Enrico Fermi, initiated humankind’s first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in an experimental reactor known as the “Chicago Pile” at 3:25pm on December 2, 1942. Moore’s form, which invites comparison to a mushroom cloud, a human skull, or protective helmet, allows viewers to contemplate the complex implications of the discovery. While many saw great potential in atomic energy, the project was inextricably linked to efforts to create an atomic bomb.

            Purchased from the artist by the B. F. Ferguson Fund, the sculpture was dedicated on December 2, 1967 on the 25^th anniversary of the event and was attended by Mrs. Laura Fermi, widow of Enrico Fermi. The work was based upon a 3-inch study in Moore’s studio viewed by a committee from the University of Chicago. Moore subsequently visited the site on the university’s campus before developing the full-sized sculpture. The setting was designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. 

Other works: 

• Large Interior Form 
• Man Enters the Cosmos (Sundial)

Man Enters the Cosmos (Sundial)

Man Enters the Cosmos (Sundial), 1980

Henry Moore

Northerly Island, northwest of Adler Planetarium

            Henry Moore (1898-1986), a British sculptor best known for his monumental abstract sculptures that draw visual analogies between the human body and landscape forms, made his first sundials between 1965-67. One was placed in the Printing House Square for the Times of London (later sold to IBM Corporation and placed at a location near Brussels). The sculpture consists of a thin bronze rod support by two intersecting bronze semicircles and the rod marks the time by casting a shadow on the ground. The 13-foot high Chicago sundial is nearly identical to the original one, with slight modifications. Moore added a golden patina to acknowledge the 50^th anniversary of modern astronomy and had to adjust to sculpture itself to accommodate the ten degree difference in latitude between London and Chicago. The B. F. Ferguson Fund donated this work to the Chicago Park District and Moore worked with architects Hammond, Beeby, and Babka on the installation process.

Other works: 

• Large Interior Form 
• Nuclear Energy

Large Interior Form

Large Interior Form, 1983

Henry Moore

Stanley McCormick Memorial Court, Art Institute of Chicago

111 South Michigan Avenue 

            Following his service in the military, Henry Moore attended the Leeds College of Art, where he met and befriended Barbara Hepworth. Both would emerge as leaders in the development of abstract sculpture in Great Britain during the 1930s and 1940s. Moore once commented, “there are universal shapes to which everyone is subconsciously conditioned and to which they can respond if their conscious control does not shut them off.” Moore’s abstract biomorphic forms invite comparisons with ancient art and forms created by cultures outside of the “Western” tradition, such as the Mesoamerican Chac Mool.

            While his early works tended to be carved in stone and wood, Moore later shifted to bronze, the material used to create the 16-foot high Large Interior Form. Many of his works feature voids, which emphasize the three-dimensionality of the sculpture by connecting one side with the other. Moore was also influenced by the Surrealists during the 1930s, often collecting stones, bones, twigs and shells and using them as a point of departure for his compositions. 

Other works: 

• Man Enters the Cosmos (Sundial)
• Nuclear Energy