Henry Moore Artwork Catalogue
Bismark Archipelago Art
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Bib. Number0023006
Bismark Archipelago Art
Author/EditorEdited by Kevin CONRU
Publisher5 Continents Editions
Place PublishedMilan
Year2013
Date & Collation327pp.Illus.Bibliography.
LanguageEnglish
More InformationArt from the South Seas island groups in the Bismark Achipelago in Western Melanesia, covering four major geographical and cultural groupings: New Ireland, New Britain, the Admiralty Islands and the Western Islands. 61-64 reference to Moore's visits to the British Museum; Moore's interest in African and Oceanic sculptures at the British Museum; Malangan carvings; New Ireland carvings; Anthony Caro; non-Western sculpture; Greek sculpture; West African wood carvings; Chola bronzes in South India.. Moore quoted New Ireland carvings made a tremendous impression on me through their use of forms within a form. I realized what a sense of mystery could be achieved by having the inside partly hidden so that you have to move around the sculpture to understand it. I was also staggered by the craftmanship needs to make those interior carvings. The so-called primitive peoples were often as advanced in technique as the more developed societies. The painting of these pieces is very attractive but for me decoration on sculpture can be a distraction from the impact of the three-dimensional form ". Illus of Upright Internal/External Form 1952-53 bronze (LH 296) and Internal/External Forms c.1935 drawing (HMF 1226). Moore talks of New Ireland sculptures he has collected: "the New Ireland peices are sculptural loose and inventive. Heads and figures often include fishes and birds in the same piece. My most recent piece came to me without a stand. It is a vertical peice with a pig's head a bird and a fish . . . it is closed and open-linear and solid. And looking at it it has so much presence it gives me a standard to attain in my own work". Moore's Helmet cited as the most brilliant exploitation of the New Ireland notion of enclosed form."