Artist of the day: Artist of the day, July 26: Henry Moore, British sculptor (Modernism)

Henry Spencer Moore (1898 –1986) was the most important British sculptor of the 20th century, and the most popular and internationally celebrated sculptor of the post-war period. Non-Western art was crucial in shaping his early work - he would say that his visits to the ethnographic collections of the British Museum were more important than his academic study. Later, leading European modernists such as Picasso, Arp, Brancusi and Giacometti became influences. And uniting these inspirations was a deeply felt humanism. He returned again and again to the motifs of the mother and child, and the reclining figure, and often used abstract form to draw analogies between the human body and the landscape.

The foundation of Moore's approach was direct carving, something he derived not only from European modernism, but also from non-Western art. He abandoned the process of modeling (often in clay or plaster) and casting (often in bronze) that had been the basis of his art education, and instead worked on materials directly. He liked the fierce involvement direct carving brought with materials such as wood and stone. It was important, he said, that the sculptor "gets the solid shape, as it were, inside his head... he identifies himself with its center of gravity."
Related to his commitment to direct carving was a belief in the ethic of 'truth to materials.' This was the idea that the sculptor should respect the intrinsic properties of media like wood and stone, letting them show through in the finished piece. A material had its own vitality, Moore believed, "an intense life of its own," and it was his job to reveal it.

During the 1930s, Moore's most fruitful and experimental decade, he was influenced by both Constructivism and, to a much greater extent, Surrealism. From the former he came to appreciate the importance of abstract form, from the latter he derived much of his interest in lending a human and psychological dimension to his sculpture. But Surrealism also shaped his mature style.

Just as the human body inspired Moore's forms, so too did the natural world. He often derived ideas from objects such as pebbles, shells and bones, and the way he evoked them in his sculpture encouraged the viewer to look upon the natural world as one endlessly varied sculpture, created continually by natural processes. Evoking both the natural world and the human body simultaneously in his work, Moore created a picture of humanity as a powerful natural force.

Mr Henry Moore

1951, Reclining Figure,
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1921, Seated Man.
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Maternity, 1924
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1926 Head of a Woman
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1929 Mask,
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Figurein wood
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1932 Half-Figure
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1935-36 Reclining Figure.
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1938 Recumbent Figure
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1939 Reclining Figure
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1939 Three Points
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1945 Reclining Figure
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1948 Family Group
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1952 Draped Reclining Figure
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1952 King and Queen
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1956 Mother and Child with Apple
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1957 Draped Seated Woman
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1957 Working Model for Unesco Reclining Figure
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1961 Seated Woman Thin Neck
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1962 Knife edge two piece
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1963 Locking Piece
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1963 Three Piece Reclining Figure No. 2 Bridge Prop
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1964 Three Way Piece No.1, Points
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1964 Working Model for Three Way Piece No.2 Archer
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1966 Double Oval
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Artist of the day

Monday, July 24, 2017

Artist of the day, July 26: Henry Moore, British sculptor (Modernism)

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