Henry Moore 1898-1986
Celebrated primarily as a sculptor, Henry Moore was strongly influenced in his formative years by painters such as Giotto, Masaccio, Blake, Turner and Picasso, as well as the painter/sculptor Michaelangelo. Born in Castleford, Yorkshire, Moore attended Leeds School of Art from 1919-21.... read more
Celebrated primarily as a sculptor, Henry Moore was strongly influenced in his formative years by painters such as Giotto, Masaccio, Blake, Turner and Picasso, as well as the painter/sculptor Michaelangelo. Born in Castleford, Yorkshire, Moore attended Leeds School of Art from 1919-21.
During the 1920’s and 1930’s Moore broke away from a more representational approach to sculpture, influenced by the pre-Columbian, African and Cycladic art he saw at the British Museum, as well as by contemporary artists such as Brancusi, Picasso and Arp. Moore explored direct carving and organic simplified forms. By 1931 Moore was a member of the Seven and Five Society and he was also invited to join Unit One; a group whose members included Edward Burra, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and Edward Wadsworth.
During World War II Moore was a celebrated War Artist, producing powerful drawings of London civilians sheltering from the bombs in the Underground during the Blitz.
The 1940’s and 1950’s brought Moore an important international reputation. In 1946, Moore was given his first overseas retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 1948 he won the International Sculpture Prize at the Venice Biennale. He had a retrospective exhibition at the Tate Gallery, London in 1951 and 1968. He was also the First Prize winner at the Sao Paulo Biennale, Brazil in 1953.
Works on paper, whether drawings or prints, were significant throughout his career, not necessarily closely related to the development of individual works in sculpture. These unusually for a sculptor, often used colour and often established a complete pictorial setting for figures or for imaginary sculptural objects, in a manner recalling the work of De Chirico or Max Ernst. (He exhibited in the International Surrealist exhibition in 1936).
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