Henry Moore (1898-1986)

The infinite range of a work envisioned in the mirror of the graphic art of a great artist and sculptor: Henry Moore

About Henry Moore's ArtAbout Henry Moore's Art

Cubism had also revolutionized the imagery of plastic art. From Picasso's collage-reliefs and Archipenko's sculptural paintings, Hans Arp's reliefs and later circular sculptures from around 1930, and Calder's irritating mobiles it is only a small step to Moore's abstract advance into the penetration of plastic space. It was the moment to achieve a synthesis, and Moore succeeded. In 1941, the following consideration appears in his writings: 'The sensitive observer and plastic artist must also learn to experience form simply as form and not as description or a recollection of something'. Another thought: 'The most striking property of all primitive art is its strong fullness of life. It shows art as a universal, uninterrupted process in which there is no separation between the past and the present. The roots of all art lie in the primitive....' Moore acknowledged his sources of inspiration in the ancient Aztec and Sumerian civilizations, as well as in the latest contemporary art, in Paris with the Surrealists and Cubists. His theme was volume and space, a lifelong undertaking - void as the equivalent of volume.

Moore's preoccupation with the figure had already begun during his artistic training. The British Museum offered enough objects to view. Moore lived through both world wars. Both times he was spared. As an englishman, he was not inclined to leave Europe either, and so he was spared exile as well. He was able to continue developing his artistic vision, in drawings as well as sculpture, despite the war. His tunnel shelter drawings express the urgent atmosphere of the war.

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