Art Of Henry Moore example essay topic

"I think I was probably about eleven when I first decided I wanted to be a sculptor. I remember quite clearly the instant. As a boy, at school, I liked the art lessons, I liked drawing. I used to get my elder brother to draw horses and other things for me from as early as I can remember" (The Documents of 20th Century Art, Philip James, 31). Henry Moore was born on July 30, 1898 in the small coal-mining town of Castleford, Yorkshire. His father, Henry, supported his large family as a miner (Henry was the seventh of eight other siblings and his mother, Mary, spent her time taking care of the family).

Moore had a humble upbringing but was still determined to become an artist from a very young age. Henry Moore attended his local elementary school, and at age 12. It was then that he received his first real honor, a free place in the secondary school. He had tremendous support from the art teacher, Miss Alice Go stick.

She sensed his talent and yearning to learn more, she was also a huge influence on his excitement for medieval sculpture. He then became a teacher at his elementary school at age 18, absorbing everything he came across in the way of art. Henry Moore's father's great-grandfather had emigrated from Ireland, perhaps the driving influence on his Irish-Anglo-Saxon art style. In September of 1919, Moore received a grant that allowed him to study at the Leed's School of Art for two years.

Moore stated that he learned nothing from his teachers there, but he spent the entire year drawing from the models and plaster casts. This year was influential in that he was able to truly focus on his art, since he felt he was learning nothing from his art professors. While he was at Leeds, he came across a book by Roger Fry, called "Vision and Design". This book inspired Moore because it was unlike any other writing on art he had previously read. Moore was extremely enthusiastic about finding this book because it gave him a new understanding of art. Fry's book no doubt enhanced Moore's artistic abilities in that he gained new knowledge on how to research and gain a new understanding of art.

Moore went on to win a competition in 1922, where he was able to change schools to the Leeds School of Art for the Royal College of Art (his current attendance at the Leed's school was not beneficial due to his lack of learning, in his eyes). At this new school, he encountered good teachers, speaking of Leon Underwood with great gratitude. In 1924 Moore was awarded the Royal College of Art Traveling scholarship. In 1926, Moore traveled on a scholarship to Paris, Rome, Florence, Venice, and Ravenna. There he was able to physically see the spot impressions he received on his visits to the London museums. He was truly inspired by the British Museums with its many collections of ancient Greek, Oriental, and pre-Colombian sculpture.

"An 'inner necessity' directed and guided Moore, on his visits to the British Museum, to the ancient and mythological" (The Art of Henry Moore, Will Grohmann, 17). 1928 marks a turning point in Moore's career; his remarkable talent was finally being recognized, this year marks the time in Moore's life that made him truly happy because he was gaining recognition as a respectable artist. Moore received his first public commission to produce a relief for Charles Holden's new London Transport headquarters above St James's Park entire year drawing from the models and plaster casts. Moore received his first public commission to produce a relief for Charles Holden's new London Transport headquarters above St James's Park Underground Station.

With the West Wind Relief in Portland stone, his first effort to make public art, Moore was finally able to conceive his developing ideas on a monumental scale. In the same year Moore had his first one-man exhibition in the Warren Gallery in London, and it was followed by a second show at the Leicester Galleries in 1931. From the 1931 exhibition came the first sale to a gallery abroad, and in the same year he exhibited three works in the Plastic exhibition in Zurich. Before Moore had left for his trip to Italy he had accepted a seven-year appointment as a Sculpture instructor at the RCA, a post that in return for two days' teaching a week gave him enough to live on and develop his own work. It was there that he met his future wife, Irina Radetsky, a painting student at the college. Henry and Irina married in 1929 and moved to the town of Hampstead.

They became friends with many aspiring young artists and writers, including Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, Naum Gabo and Herbert Read. Each aspiring artist and writer was influenced by Moore, and had his or her influence on him as well. Henry moved from the RCA in 1932 and began teaching as a first head of the department of sculpture at the Chelsea School of Art. Between 1930-1935, he was elected to the Seven and Five Society, a society which originally consisted of seven painters and five sculptors. By 1934 the society's general meeting was attended by Moore, Hepworth, Nicholson (whom was a dear friend to Henry), Piper, amongst others, and the- new name seven and five abstract group was proposed. Moore exhibited in the last exhibition of the Seven and Five at Zwemmer Gallery in 1935.

In 1933 Paul Nash founded Unit One, which again included Moore. Also that year the book "Unit One - the modern movement in English architecture, painting and sculpture", edited by Herbert Read was published. In 1934 Moore contributed to the Unit One exhibition at the Mayor Gallery in London. Henry was becoming an established name and as early as 1934 there was the first monograph on Moore's work by Herbert Read, published by Zwemmer, London. "The logic and consistency of Moore's development will become more evident if we briefly sketch the main ideas advanced in his earlier writings. We can do so all the more readily because Moore is no theorist and writes nothing that had not experienced in his work and checked a hundred times.

He writes only of his own aims and avoids discussing the ideas and productions of his contemporaries" (Grohmann, 20). Moore will not write anything unless he is certain it holds validity, only after he cross-examines it to be the truth. "For him, (Moore) perfection in sculpture means to evolve the perfect idiom for each composition. It is almost easier to see the unity in Moore's work than to understand his development" (Wilkinson, 298). According to Moore, a stone carving must merely look like stone.

To make a carving look like a being of flesh and blood is merely slight of hand. Moore believes that a sculptor must work directly in his materials and only then can it play its part in molding his ideas. Henry stresses that work must be three-dimensional if the artist wants it to be a genuine sculpture. He stated, "The desire for form completely realized is connected with asymmetry... Asymmetry is connected also with the desire for the organic (which I have) rather than the geometric. Organic forms, though they may be symmetrical in their main disposition, in their reaction to the environment, growth and gravity, lose their perfect symmetry".

(Henry Moore: Writings Herbert Read was published. (Henry Moore: Writings and Conversations, Wilkinson, 167). Moore acknowledges that inspiration itself comes in the first place from nature. He goes on to state that nature reached the fundamentals such as balance, rhythm, organic growth, attraction and repulsion, harmony and contrast. He believes that appearance in only part of the whole and stresses the importance of the invisible, that which cannot be seen by the naked eye. He said that the eyes can easily see the physical, but it is what cannot be seen is the most influential.

More also said in a speech in Venice in 1952", The public has no natural relationship to art and expects from it a confirmation of its notions of social, spiritual and artistic ideality, most of which amount in practice to a majority decision reached without any good grounds. Moore received increasingly prestigious commissions abroad, including the monumental Reclining Figure 1957-58 in Roman travertine marble for the UNESCO headquarters in Paris and at home, the abstract Knife Edge Two Piece 1962 in bronze which stands outside the Houses of Parliament in London. In this congress meeting organized by UNESCO, Moore gave a speech, stating that, "Some become sculptors because they like using their hands, or because they love particular materials, wood or stone, clay or metal, and like working in these materials - that is, they like the craft of sculpture - I do". He became an icon for post-war Britain, something of a national institution with everyone wanting a work by Henry Moore. From the 1950's onwards, with a huge increase in commissions, Moore produced much larger sculptures, and employed assistants including Anthony Caro, Phillip King, John Farnham, Malcolm Woodward, and Michel Muller to help him. Moore speaks of this time in his life that he was the happiest, having enough money and commissions to fully explore his artistic side, unabridged.

The scale and quantity of his work grew and grew; in total there are about 919 sculptures, 5500 drawings and 717 graphics. Moore is now a recognized member of the art community. Henry Moore kept distance from his fellow artists. He neither proclaimed nor criticized others' works. Moore tried to stay neutral when it came to others, and never truly gave any credit to other artists; he wanted to have his own style and credit for his work. More said in a speech in Venice in 1952", The public has no natural relationship to art and expects from it a confirmation of its notions of social, spiritual and artistic ideality, most of which amount in practice to a majority decision reached without any good grounds.

Henry Moore died at the age of eighty-eight on the 31st of August 1986 and the press, which had been so hard on him in his early years as a sculptor, now praised his great achievements. "Since the death of Sir Winston Churchill, Henry Moore has been the most internationally acclaimed of Englishmen, honoured by every civilized country in the world" (James, 197). Henry Moore left an impact on the world of art that was truly amazing. He was able to portray his feelings and emotions through his art and sculptures, something later artists can only hope to mimic. Moore introduced a new style of sculpting that utilized the use of shape, balance, and rhythm, something that had never been done before in the artistic community. He left a lasting impression in sculpting that will never be forgotten.

Grohmann, Will. The Art of Henry Moore. (New York, Thames and Hudson, 1960). James, Philip. The Documents of Twentieth-Century Art. (New York, The Viking Press, 1971).

Wilkinson, Alan. Henry Moore: Writings and Conversations. (Los Angeles, Berkeley, University of California Press, 2002).