Figurativa

Despite the new style trends, numerous early 20th-century European sculptors continued to work in a representational manner. Each produced distinctive forms, for the most part based on the human figure. In France, Aristide Maillol evoked classical repose in impressive bronzes of the female figure. One such work is a female torso, Action in Chains (1906, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris), which demonstrates Maillol's characteristic perfect balance between states of tension and relaxation. Like Maillol, the French-born Gaston Lachaise-who later immigrated to America-made the female figure his vehicle of expression, endowing his sculptures with grace and delicacy despite the enormous proportions of their torsos.

The French painter Henri Matisse also made several series of bronze figural works displaying varying degrees of distortion that express inner muscular tensions. In Germany, Wilhelm Lehmbruck produced quiet, elongated figures expressing withdrawal and a sense of resignation. Ernst Barlach's sculpture, on the other hand, was expressionistic; he chose humble subjects and illustrated a wide degree of emotions, ranging from joy, as in Singing Man (1928, private collection, Germany), to revenge, as in The Avenger (1914, Hirshhorn Museum). Scandinavia's foremost sculptors were the Swede Carl Milles and the Norwegian Gustav Vigeland; both created allegorical figures for fountains and other public monuments in their native countries. Milles also lived in the U.S. and created fountains for New York, St. Louis, Missouri, and other American cities.

The Paris- trained Elie Nadelman immigrated to the U.S. where he produced figural bronzes with smooth contours and simplified volumes, such as Man in the Open Air (c. 1915, Museum of Modern Art). The American-born Sir Jacob Epstein, who settled in London, was widely known for his representational bronze portraits, with their characteristic rough, pitted surfaces that lend great expressiveness. The greatest of modern English artists, however, and perhaps the most eminent of all 20th-century sculptors, was Henry Moore.

His early work was influenced by pre-Columbian sculpture; it is evident when the Toltec-Mayan stone sculpture called a Chacmool (c. 1000, National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City), of the rain god Chac, is compared to his sculpture Reclining Figure (1929, City Art Gallery, Leeds, England). Moore's lifelong concern was the reclining female figure, which he always presented with great freshness and originality. Many of his elegant, monumental works are found outdoors, enhancing their modern urban architectural settings; Toronto, New York, Chicago, and Dallas, Texas, are among the numerous cities displaying Moore's masterpieces. Although Barbara Hepworth, another English sculptor of international stature, generally worked in a somewhat abstract, organic style, some of her sculptures refer to the human figure, such as Group II (Evocation) (1952, Collection Margaret Gardner, England).

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