The Brown Daily Herald recently concocted an elaborate ranking system of the Henry Moore sculptures on every Ivy League campus, since every Ivy League school with the unfortunate exception of the University of Pennsylvania can call itself home to at least one of Moore’s semi-abstract creations.
“Hoards of reputable sources, from Business Insider to BetchesLoveThis, have mercilessly ranked the Ivy League universities, but these lists have only compared the same, yawn-worthy specifications,” the article said. “None of these sites have evaluated the Ivy League based on the schools’ respective Henry Moore sculptures. How could they be so foolish to overlook such a critical criterion?”
Sculptures were ranked from 1-5 in six categories: whether or not its an outdoor sculpture (and “weather resistant”), location, date of acquisition, the donor, material (“the most durable deserves the most points”), and size.
Brown slid in for the top slot with a total score of 26/30 for its “an 11-foot, gender neutral reclining figure in the epicenter of campus,” probably because the entire piece was a biased parody. Princeton only lost to Brown by half a point, for Moore’s Oval With Points which serves as a public memorial for the Princeton alumnus killed in World War II. Harvard received third place.
Yale’s Draped Seated Woman won the University fourth place. The sculpture was the first of Moore’s to be placed on an Ivy League campus and now sits, literally, on the University Art Gallery’s sculpture terrace.
Receiving a score of 0/30, Penn came in last as the only Ivy yet to place a Henry Moore statue on its campus.