1. About People
Henry Moore

2. Enduring Understanding
Students will understand that
artworks do encapsulate the
themes of identity and
relationships in a variety of
ways

3. Essential Questions Overarching Questions What is an identity?
How can relationships within a family or society be shaped?
How artists form identity or relationships with their art?
Topical Questions
How does abstraction enhance the theme of identity and relationships?

4. Essential Questions Overarching Questions What is an identity ?
How do artists form identity
or relationships with their art?
Topical Questions
How can art be an extension
of nature?

5. 5W1H

6. Who Moore was born on the 30 July 1898 in Castleford, Yorkshire.
He started learning pottery with Alice Gostick, his art teacher on 1911.
He became a student teacher on 1915.
He taught in Castleford from 1916.
Moore was recruited in 1917 by the army.
He returned to Castleford in 1919 and continued his pottery lessons with Gostick. In the same year, he enrolled into Leeds School of Art.

7. Who
Moore met his lifetime friend Barbara Hepworth in 1921 at Leeds. He also won a scholarship to Royal College of Arts (RCA) in London.
He visited Paris in 1922 to see the work of Cézanne.
He started teaching at RCA in 1924.
He quitted RCA in 1931due to an article which caused a public scandal. Soon after, he was employed by Chelsea College of Art to set up the sculpture department.
His only child Mary Moore was born in 1946.
In 1965, he bought a house near the Carrara marble quarries of Italy.
He died at the age of 88 in the year 1986.

8. When (1898- 1986) < 1898: The opening of British Museum in 1759.
1914: World War I.
: Barbara Hepworth. Moore and Hepworth share many similarities in their sculptures.
1920s: The emergence of Surrealism.
1939: World War 1I.
1940: The London Blitz. German air force bombed London for 12 hours on 7 Sept. Such intense air-raid continued for several months.

9. Where
England
The Russian artists, Naum Gabo (1890 – 1977) and Antoine Pevsner (1886 – 1962) issued a “constructivist manifesto” that calls for distancing from traditional sculpture methods such as stone carving and exploring space with new forms and materials. They were living at England.
The 1930s was fraught with economic depression and political tension.

10. Which
Modern Sculpture
Abstraction

11. What Subject Matter- Figurative
Sculptures of the human body, head and shoulders are common in the European artistic tradition and non-European art.
His individual figures- the female forms include reclining females and seated women.
They are either nude or draped. He saw a connection between the draperies to landscape, comparing them to the folds of the hills and the valleys or “the crinkled skin of the earth”.
His figures in groups are mother and child together or family groups with the presence of the father.
Ciment Fondu is cement. Advantages are quick and hard setting.

12. What
Theme
Nature Inspired Figures- “convey the human figure as a form of landscape” (Fath, 1996).
Landscape as a creative source (be it within the sculpture itself or the site).
The human landscape- linking landscape with the human body.
Thus, it is a metaphor for landscape. An idea that was very new at that time.
Some of his post-war (WWII) works resemble “helmeted heads” (Wallis, 2002).
Ciment Fondu is cement. Advantages are quick and hard setting.

13. What
Theme
The massive carnage of WWII has made him respond to the conflict with helmet heads that are both “menacing and protective” (Wallis, 2002).
Internal/External Forms, composed of two shapes, one enclosing the other. They look like giant versions of his helmet heads.
These figures resembled the hollow trees bordering Moore’s estate at Hertfordshire.
Ciment Fondu is cement. Advantages are quick and hard setting.

14. Green gneiss stone, ? x ? x 28 cm
Elements of Cubism
Mother and Child, 1922
Green gneiss stone, ? x ? x 28 cm
Head and Shoulders , 1927

15. Influenced from Primitive Art
Mask, 1928
Green gneiss stone, 21.2 x 19 x 8.7 cm
Tate Gallery, UK
Mask, 1929
Cast concrete, 20 x 18 x 13 cm
Tate Gallery, UK

16. Constructivist Approach
Bird Basket, 1939
Lignum vitae and string, 42 cm long

17. The Moore Danowski Trust
Reclining Figures
Reclining Woman, 1927
Cast concrete, x x cm
The Moore Danowski Trust

18. Reclining Figures This is his first commissioned work
West Wind,
Portland stone, 244 cm long
London Transport HQ, St James Park Underground Station

19. Brown Horton stone, 85 cm long
Reclining Figures
Reclining Figure, 1929
Brown Horton stone, 85 cm long

20. Reclining Figures This is one of Moore’s first figure that
undulates like a landscape.
Recumbent Figure, 1938
Green Horton stone, 88.9 x x 73.7 cm
Tate Gallery, UK

21. Plaster and string, 105.4 x 227.3 x 89.2 cm
Reclining Figures
Reclining Figure, 1951
Plaster and string, x x 89.2 cm
Tate Gallery, UK

22. Reclining Figures This is one of Moore’s first figure that
undulates like a landscape.
Draped Reclining Figure,
Bronze, x x 91.4 cm
The Henry Moore Foundation

23. Reclining Figure: Festival, 1951
Reclining Figures
Reclining Figure: Festival, 1951
Stoneware 45 x 22 x 15 cm

24. Seated Woman: Thin Neck, 1961
Seated Figures
Seated Woman: Thin Neck, 1961
Bronze x 81.3 x cm
Tate Gallery, UK

25. Mother and Child Mother and Child , 1953 Bronze, 53 x 27 x 34.5cm
Tate Gallery, UK

26. Henry Moore Foundation
Mother and Child , 1967
Marble, cm long
Henry Moore Foundation

27. Family Groups Family Group, 1944 Terracotta, 15 x 12.6 x 7.6 cm
Tate London, UK

28. Family Groups Family Group, 1949 Bronze, 154 x 118 x 70 cm
Tate London, UK

29. Relationship Front View Back View Over Mother’s Head, 1990
Bronze, 103 x 40 x 38 cm
Over Mother’s Head, 1990
Bronze, 103 x 40 x 38 cm

30. Didrichsen Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland
This sculpture is inspired by the skull of an elephant which Moore collected.
Atom Piece, 1965
Bronze, ? x ? x 122 cm high
Didrichsen Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland

31. His Works @ the Countryside
King and Queen,
Bronze, 164 x 138 x 84.5 cm
Keswick Estate, Glenkiln, Dumfresshire, Scotland

32. The Henry Moore Foundation
His Massive Monuments
Moore chose the countryside as the location for his sculptures because he wanted to use the open sky as dramatic backgrounds.
Sheep Piece,
Bronze, 550 cm high
The Henry Moore Foundation

33. The Henry Moore Foundation, Perry Green
Surrealistic Hint
Two Seated Women, 1934
Charcoal, watercolour, pen and ink, crayon on cream medium-weight wove paper, 37 x 55 cm
The Henry Moore Foundation, Perry Green

34. Portland stone, ? x 808 cm long
Time-Life Screen,
Portland stone, ? x 808 cm long
Pearl Assurance, Time-Life Building, London

35. War Related Drawings
This drawing is a response to the news on the declaration of
WWII. Moore and his wife was on a swimming trip to Dover. It shows 8 women in the sea surrounded by Dover’s steep Shakespeare cliff. It points to the beginning of a conflict and a fear of a repeat of the European bloodbath.
September 3rd, 1939
Pencil, wax crayon, coloured crayons and Indian ink, 30.6 x 39.8 cm
The Henry Moore Foundation

36. War Related Drawings Tube Shelter Perspective, 1941
Pencil, ink, wax and
watercolour, on paper, 75 x 69.5 cm
Tate Gallery, UK

37. Pink and Green Sleepers, 1941
War Related Drawings
Pink and Green Sleepers, 1941
Oil on canvas, 198 x cm
Moore encountered men, women and children using the platforms of the Underground stations as makeshift shelters from the bombing. The result-these images known as the shelter drawings

38. Shelter Scene: Bunks and Sleepers, 1941
War Related Drawings
Shelter Scene: Bunks and Sleepers, 1941
Watercolour, gouache
on paper, 75 x 69 cm
Tate Gallery, UK

39. Pencil, pen and ink, watercolour and crayon on paper, 65 x 81.7 cm
War Related Drawings
Shelterers in the Tube, 1941
Pencil, pen and ink, watercolour and crayon on paper, 65 x 81.7 cm
Tate Gallery, UK

40. Fun Fact!
Moore revisited the London Underground as an actor in a documentary entitled Out of Chaos on war artists.

41. His After Study after Cézanne’s Bathers, 1980
Carbon line, wax crayon, watercolour, chalk, chinagraph on heavyweight woven paper, 25 x 13.7 cm
The Henry Moore Foundation

42. Seated Nude with Mirror, 1924
His Nudes
Seated Nude with Mirror, 1924
Pencil, charcoal, watercolour wash, pen, brush and ink on paper, 63 x 48cm
Tate Gallery, UK

43. Why
His Background
Moore’s mother suffered from rheumatism and would ask Moore to massage her back. This allows him (as he said) to become more sensitive to the curves of the back.
He also enjoyed miles and miles of countryside at Castleford when he was young, exploring the woodland and playing by the canal.
His interest in sculpture was ignited in Sunday school when he first chanced upon the works of Michelangelo. He was carving from bits of wood and stone.
Moore had a natural talent for art since young. He won a scholarship to secondary school.
He was conscripted to the army at 19. In his letters to his teacher Alice Gostick, he wrote of the dreadful condition- the noise, insufficient sleep. This was when he made drawings of “people picking lice from their clothes” (O’Reilly, 2003).
Ciment Fondu is cement. Advantages are quick and hard setting.

44. Why
His Background
Moore’s art teacher Alice Gostick was a source of inspiration to him after the war, who encouraged him to pursue art as a career.
He admitted to Leeds School of Art with a grant scouted by her. It was at Leeds when he decided to be a sculptor.
The school set up a sculpture department which was previously unavailable and Babara Hepworth (another famous sculptor) joined Moore in this department.
He won a scolarship to Royal College of Art in 1921, where he rebelled against the academy. The training in RCA was based on classical and Renaissance art whereby sculptors used pointing machine (a measuring tool to copy plaster, clay or wax sculpture models into wood or stone) to copy classical sculpture.
Ciment Fondu is cement. Advantages are quick and hard setting.

45. Why
His Background
The emergence of the Surrealists had influenced Moore in some minute ways.
For example, he agreed with their imagination and inventiveness but never allowing the subconscious to take over control in the creation.
He exhibited his abstract reclining figures with the Surrealists in the Surrealist Exhibition at the new Burlington Galleries in Despite their common ideas, Moore can never be identified as a Surrealist.
Another of his work that reminds one of Surrealistic tendencies is the drawing of Two Seated Women, 1934.
Ciment Fondu is cement. Advantages are quick and hard setting.

46. Why
His Background
At the same time, he was experimenting with abstraction.
His work became “increasingly simplified and removed from reality” (O’Reilly, 2003). He claimed that it was more true to nature.
Moore was directly affected by the Blitz. His home was bombed and he and his wife were thus forced out of London and into the open countryside.
This move was his first experience with the countryside and became a turning point for Moore.
The birth of his daughter has inspired many family groups sculptures.
Ciment Fondu is cement. Advantages are quick and hard setting.

47. Why His Influence- Landscape
He was inspired by the landscape in Yorkshire.
He was exploring the countryside of Castleford as a child and acknowledged that as essential to artistic development- helping him to understand nature and nurturing his imagination.
It is a land of great contrast- the countryside versus the local mining area.
The countryside yields undulating hills and large open skies while ugly slag (stony material compose of waste matter and dross) heaps mar the landscape.
Moore would always tap on the rocky crags and mountains of coal and smooth pebbles of Castleford streets for his sculptures.
Ciment Fondu is cement. Advantages are quick and hard setting.

48. Why His Influence- Primitive Art
Primitive art describes art from various different cultures outside European and Oriental art.
They often look abstract, for example, dots and slits for eyes with “chunky tubular limbs” (O’Reilly, 2003).
Moore discovered the book Vision and Design by Roger Fry.
Fry’s essays on ancient art struck a chord in Moore. He became fascinated with primitive art and was particularly drawn to Latin American sculptures.
When he was attending RCA, he spent most of his free time gallivanting the London museums with their treasures of primitive sculptures. From Egypt, Pacific Islands, Africa and Mexico.

49. Brown Horton stone, 85 cm long
Why
His Influence- Primitive Art
Chacmool is a Mexican rain spirit
Reclining Figure, 1929
Brown Horton stone, 85 cm long
Chacmool, 12th C
by Mexico
Limestone, 45.7 x 95 x 12.1cm

50. Why His Influence- Jacob Epstein (1880-1959)
He was an American-born sculptor who worked in UK.
He pioneered the modern sculpture.
He often produced controversial works that challenged the taboos concerning what public artworks should depict.
His technique- direct carving.
He was also a painter.

51. Torso, in Metal form “The Rock Drill, 1913-14
Why- His Influence
Night, 1928=29
by Jacob Epstein
London Transport HQ
Torso, in Metal form “The Rock Drill,
by Jacob Epstein
Bronze, 70.5 x 58.4 x 44.5cm
Tate Gallery, UK

52. How
His Materials
Stone
Wood
Bronze
Marble

53. How
He transforms the way people see art by creating huge sculptures and placing them in the open- egs: parks, squares and important buildings. (Traditionally, public sculptures are statues of generals or works of commemoration).
He carved directly into stone or wood with hammer and chisel.
Direct carving (20th C term) corresponds with the statement of that time “truth to material” because it is risky as one slip of the chisel is a grave irreversible mistake. The process is thought of as “working with nature” and thus being true to the material.

54. “I liked the fact that you begin with the block
How
Sculptors like Moore believed that the sculpture is already in the stone and waiting to be uncovered by the artist’s hands.
“I liked the fact that you begin with the block
and have to find the sculpture inside. You have to overcome the resistance of the material by sheer determination and hard work.”
- Henry Moore -
He believes the material should dominate for example the quality of wood allows the sculpture to be as thin as a tree, which a stone can’t perform.

55. How
Moore’s stone figures are usually reclining. For sculptors working with stone, it is a practical decision on their part to recline their figures because a stone standing sculpture can snap at its ankles or neck.
He reduces his objects to the simplest forms or build them from basic shapes.
He also excavates holes from his sculptures.- something unusual at that point of time.
Moore was beginning to explore the material bronze after the war. The reason is that bronze is more malleable than stone and allows him to cast upright figures without the sculptures splitting into two.

56. How
He used lost-wax casting (refer to video in MI Link). He reverted back to the traditional method of creating maquettes
He did the casting himself with his two asistants.
Then, he cast them in professional foundries.
Next, he became interested in marble.
As he got older, his works got larger and larger. They became massive monuments cast in bronze.
Size matters for Moore, especially his outdoor works. He wants his sculptures to complement nature and not become overwhelmed by it.

57. Where is the Henry Moore sculpture in Singapore? What is it called?
Fun Quiz
Where is the Henry Moore sculpture in Singapore?
What is it called?
And how does it look like?

58. Reference
O’Reilly, S (2003). Artists in Their World: Henry Moore. Franklin Watts: Australia.
Wallis, J. (2002) Creative Lives: Henry Moore. Harcourt Education: UK.

59. Warning!
Lecture slides are used for
internal learning purposes. No
content nor image is allowed
to be re-produced and
circulated outside school.