Henry Moore (1898-1986)

by Kendyl D.



Henry Moore was a British artist and sculptor. Moore was the son of a mining engineer, and born in the Yorkshire town of Castleford, England. Moore became well known for his large-scale abstract cast bronze and carved marble sculptures. Supported by the British art establishment, Moore helped to introduce a particular form of modernism into the United Kingdom.His ability to satisfy large-scale commissions made him exceptionally wealthy towards the end of his life. However, most of his wealth went to endow the Henry Moore Foundation, which continues to support education and promotion of the arts. Moore’s signature form is a pierced reclining figure, first influenced by a Toltec-Maya sculpture known as "Chac Mool", which he had seen as a plaster cast in Paris, 1925. Early versions are pierced conventionally as a bent arm reconnects with the body. Later more abstract versions are pierced directly through the body in order to explore the concave and convex shapes.
His sculptures are usually abstractions of the human figure, and if so there’re almost always female. Many interpret the undulating form of his reclining figures as references to the landscape and hills of Yorkshire where Moore was born. Moore’s art, however, was not always such modernism, but rather direct carving, which evolved whittling from a block of wood, in his early years. At his home in Much Hadham, Moore built up a collection of natural objects such as skulls, driftwood, pebbles and shells, that he would use to provide inspiration for organic forms.
During World War II, Moore was commissioned as a war artist, notably producing powerful drawings of Londoners sleeping in the London Underground while sheltering from the blitz. These drawings helped to boost Moore's international reputation, especially in America.