ART SERVICES WRITING
Written for Thea Westreich Art Advisory Services for Private Collection 24 August 1998.
HENRY MOORE (1898-1986)
Maquette fot Three Standing Figures
Bronze with Green Patina, 27 x 29 1/8 x 11 1/2 inches, 1953.
Mother and Child
Etching, 25 of 50, 8 7/8 x 10 3/4 inches, 22 3/8 x 19 3/8 inches framed, 1968.
The most notable British sculptor after World War II, and among the greatest sculptors of the twentieth century, Henry Moore was a master manipulator of forms who forged a new way of looking at the human figure. Moore is one who would not let the world forget that we are objects of nature, a conviction Moore maintained and evolved throughout a century whose artistic claims to fame some may argue have featured formalism, nonobjectivity and abstraction over the representation of nature in art.
Born in Castleford as the seventh of eight children, Henry Moore learned quickly to find comfort in a rather communal existence that accompanied a very small house with large and loving family. His father was a man of intelligence and dignity who without proper schooling had taught himself all of the necessary skills required to assume the position of mining engineer. Both his parents were equally ambitious concerning the interests of their children, as good marks would offer scholarships and a way out of the coalmining life. Three of Moore’s siblings went on to become professors as a result of their parents positive guidance and conditioning. Ironically, the only mines Henry Moore saw the insides of were filled with evacuated citizens during wartime.
The family lost their youngest daughter when Moore was twelve, the only traumatic experience Moore recalled of his otherwise peaceful and happy childhood. Moore assumed the priveleges and attention of the youngest child as he continued to explore his interest in art through drawing classes and games with childhood friends which required constant creativity. There was a quarry in Castleford, and the children would play games like ‘Piggie’ and ‘Knurr and Spell’, which required playing pieces made from modeled clay and carved wood. This very enjoyable and rewarding process allowed Moore a means of contributing socially and being appreciated for his gifts at a young age.
In 1917, shortly after acquiring a student-teacher degree, Henry Moore enlisted in the Civil Service Rifles as the youngest member of his regiment. His successful career in the military, which the famously understated Moore referred to as an overall “enjoyable” experience, was followed in 1919 by an ex-serviceman’s grant to Leeds School of Art. The climate of The Leeds School of Art had changed favorably promoted the investigation of any and all art forms, with the exception of the traditional Greek School, which artists and academics were intent on discarding as tired and irrelevant to contemporary concerns. This environment suited the independent Moore completely, and gave Moore the footing and confidence to take with him to the Royal College of Art in London, where he received a scholarship for sculpture in 1921.
Moore’s career began under Principal Rothenstein at the R.C.A., whose appreciation and respect for contemporary European art led him to highlight creativity and free thinking among his students. Impressed with the young sculptor’s work and person, Rothenstein introduced Moore to inspiring sculptors like Epstein and went so far as to secure for his brilliant young friend an assitant teaching position at the Royal College when Moore graduated in 1924. Over the next ten years, Henry Moore would lay the groundwork for an artistic philosophy and unique creative direction that would last a lifetime and make him famous the world over.
Few sculptors have matched Moore’s obsession with the variations of form which represent the female model. Maquette for Three Standing Figures of 1953 is one of the first bronze creations to illustrate Moore’s shift from the seated and reclining figures to the standing figure, a series he would continue to expand on for the remainder of his career. Maquette for Three Standing Figures is a perfect example of the variety of influences Moore constantly sought to reconcile and harmonize, which by the 1930’s had given way to a completely unique vision. Moore struggled to fuse European contemporary art of the time, namely surrealism and abstracted figures spurned by Cubism and Picasso’s post-neoclassical paintings, with the primitivism of Mexican, Summerian, Cycladic, African and Iberian art. Actually, it was Moore’s fascination with ancient Mexican stone carving in the 1920’s and early 1930’s that immediately set him apart from most of his fellow artists, who had since the turn of the century sought inspiration from the African and Iberian art that flowed into Paris and helped to spark Cubism. After the end of World War II, and elevated to dizzying heights of fame by the circulation of Moore’s poignant drawings of British civilians taking refuge in coal mines as bomb shelters, Moore began to contemplate the standing figure and the use of bronze. Ultimately, thirty years into working by the argument that carving was the purest means to capture life in sculpture, Moore resolved for himself that a sculpture must move beyond its own materiality. He put aside his chisel and mallet for the faster and more efficient process of clay and plaster modelling to bronze, which would allow him to focus on a number of larger and more ambitious creations at one time.
As most great artists, Henry Moore was convinced that ‘drawing is everything. All the sculptors who had been any good were great draftsmen.’ Moore’s superior draftsmanship can be clearly seen in the Mother and Child etching of 1968, which reflects the master’s fluency and ease with pen or steel point. The seamless composition, which features one of Moore’s most common themes, balances the seated loving mother holding her playful child with the sculpture on the left. A figure can be seen working on the sculpture, and perhaps in communication with the woman just behind the mother and child. Above the sculpture to the left several figures observe art, sculpture plans or papers on a table. All this activity in Moore’s studio is reflective of his life, of course, a friendly and accomodating man who went so far as to happily receive busloads of school children in his studio. The third dimension is always an aspect of Moore’s work, and never suffered when Moore took to drawing, painting or etching. Moore builds the deep space in Mother and Child by inverting one triangle of light and form, represented by the sculpture with mother and child, and placing it on top of a second triangle of darkness and form, represented by the black shadows behind the sculpture and to the left of the mother and child.
Rarely one to be easily categorized, Henry Moore was never comfortable being considered either a surrealist or abstract sculptor, although the connections to various schools and genres suited Moore’s career and artistic dialogues well. The Surrealists openly accepted him in the 1930’s and abstract artists have always felt a kinship with his simplified, experimental forms that have pushed sculpture in this century to new heights. A tried and true British patriot who spent his life in England, Henry Moore lived and worked happily until his death in 1986 at the age of eighty-eight. His work cannot be missed in any major museum or collection in the world, and his vision and reputation continue to resonate with the numerous truths he has left behind for us all to enjoy forever.