Liberal Arts Blog — Henry C. Moore
Liberal Arts Blog — Friday is the Joy of Art, Architecture, Film, Design, and All Things Visual Day
Today’s Topic — Henry C. Moore (1898–1986) — large scale, semi-abstract, reclining (usually female) figures
Son of a coal miner, Moore was born in a small town in Yorkshire in the northeast of England. Inspired by Michelangelo, he did his first sculpture at age 11. After serving in the British Army during World War I (and being injured in a gas attack in France during the Battle of Cambrai) he studied art at the Leeds on an ex-serviceman grant. His style quickly evolved from classical to modernist. Influences were many including ancient Egyptian, Mayan, and African art — most specifically the Chac Mool, a reclining male figure from Chichen-Itza which he saw at a museum in Paris (see last link). Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
THE BRONZE “LARGE FOUR PIECE RECLINING FIGURE” (1972–3)
1. The photo above is of the copy outside of Lamont Library at Harvard.
2. “People climb on the Moore sculpture with sandy shoes and scratch its surface, which Moore intended to be smooth, even polished. Acid from heaven goes to work, covering the surface with patches of dark oxidation and light green streaking. Acid has actually etched the bronze so that it has begun to look like Swiss cheese.” (See second link)
3. “Conservators have changed the coating of the Moore sculpture from a lacquer like substance to wax. Wax when scratched will form softer-edged, less visually distracting patterns of oxidation than lacquer and, because it is more easily maintained, will be more faithfully maintained.” (ditto)
NB “A third measure under consideration is to mostly surround the sculpture with a ground cover planting — not to confront the athletic with a physical barrier, but to suggest that the reclining figure is someone special, as opposed to a jungle gym.” (ditto)
RECLINING FIGURE (1938) — Tate Gallery London
1. “You may be able to make out knees, breasts and a head, but the forms have been simplified and the figure looks abstract.” (Tate Gallery, third link below)
2. “Henry Moore carved Recumbent Figure from a huge block of Green Hornton stone which came from a quarry in Oxfordshire. If you look closely you can see tiny fossils on its surface which help to give the sculpture its rich, rough texture. Its undulating shape makes it look a bit like a landscape. Although it was made in 1938 and is a work of modern art, Its simple, powerful form suggests an ancient object.” (ditto)
3. He was inspired by skulls and bones: “Bones are the inside structure that nature uses for both lightness and strength…so in bones you can find the principles which can be very important in sculpture.” (Henry Moore)
NB: “In Yorkshire, in Adele Woods just outside Leeds, there was a big rock amongst many that I called Adele Rock. That influenced me quite a bit. For me, it was the first big bleak lump of stone set in the landscape surrounded by marvelous gnarled prehistoric trees. It had no feature of recognition; no copying of nature — just a bleak powerful form. Very impressive.” (Henry Moore)
RECLINING CONNECTED FORMS (1969)
1.”In this composition, Moore includes aspects of the three important and defining subjects that recur throughout his oeuvre: the reclining figure, the dichotomy between internal and external forms, and the mother and child.”
2. “These themes were lifelong fascinations for Moore and stemmed from his unending desire to tangibly realize life’s most fundamental and primordial forms”
3. “For me, everything in the world of form is understood through our own bodies. From our mother’s breast, from our bones, from bumping into things, we learn what is rough and what is smooth. To observe, to understand, to experience the vast variety of space, shape and form in the world, twenty lifetimes would not be enough. There is no end to it.”
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned recently or ever related to art, sculpture, design, architecture, film, or anything visual.
This is your chance to make some one else’s day. And to cement in your own memory something cool or important you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than you otherwise would about something that is close to your heart.
