Henry Moore Artwork Catalogue
The hidden struggle
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This text is reprinted in Henry Moore on Sculpture (See 0005627) and for other versions see also 0007533."
Bib. Number0007392
The hidden struggle
Author/EditorMOORE Henry.
PublisherObserver
Place PublishedLondon
Year1957
Date & Collation(24 Nov) 3(5 illus).
LanguageEnglish
More InformationVoice of the artist, 1. Moore writes of a quality he finds in artists he admires most (Masaccio, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Cézanne), namely a disturbing element a distortion giving evidence of a struggle of some sort". Moore explains how Rembrandt copied Mantegna. "One cannot change one's nature. Artists try to debate all the time what they do instead of seeing that there is something in the opposite. No one really knows anything unless he knows also the opposite... I personally believe that all life is a conflict.... And you have to die too which is the opposite of living. One must try to find a synthesis to come to terms with opposite qualities... Perfectionist art does not move me... All that is bursting with energy is disturbing not perfect. It is the quality of life. The other is the quality of the ideal... All primitive art is disturbed or an experience of power not perfectionist... This disturbing quality of life goes hand in hand with the disturbing quality of our time... Never once did I want to make what I thought of as a 'beautiful' woman... I do not consider our age to be worse than others... For life every period is a terrible period... No art has ever existed and no artist has ever created out of real despair. To be an artist is the opposite of being in a state of despair. To be an artist is to believe in life..."This text is reprinted in Henry Moore on Sculpture (See 0005627) and for other versions see also 0007533."