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Henry Moore Artwork Catalogue

The Life of Henry Moore.

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The Life of Henry Moore.
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Bib. Number0000182

The Life of Henry Moore.

Author/EditorBERTHOUD Roger.
Place PublishedLondon
Year
Date & Collation465pp(8 illus).96 plates(191 illus).Bibliog.
LanguageEnglish
More InformationAuthorised biography produced from conversations with the artist and others, from letters, press cuttings and other publications. Includes quotations by Moore, some previously unpublished (including letters). Prelude and 19 chapters in chronological sequence.
1. Childhood and School 1898-1916.
Parents, Castleford, abattoir, coal-mining, Sunday school story about Michelangelo, massaging his mother's back, tip cat, Adel Rock, Castleford Secondary School and headmaster T. R. Dawes, Alice Gostick, early drawings and carvings.
2. Briefly to War 1917 to Early 1919.
First visit to London to enlist, training in Winchester, front line trenches in France, letters home, mustard-gas poisoning, convalescence and retraining as bayonet instructor and return to teaching in Castleford.
3. Art Student in Leeds 1919-1921.
Friendship with Raymond Coxon, school routines, Barbara Hepworth and others, Narayana and Bhataryan, Michael Sadler, Roger Fry.
4. Student in London and Abroad 1921-1925.
Royal College of Art, British Museum, first Mothers and Childs, lodgings with Raymond Coxon, Paris, family move to Norfolk and death of his father, influence of Leon Underwood, discovery of Gaudier, support by William Rothenstein, Wembley carvings, teaching at the Royal College of Art part-time, Paris again and Italy travelling scholarship: Giotto, Masaccio and emotional strain.
5. Public Débuts and Teaching 1925-1928.
First exhibition and reclining figures, Jacob Epstein, early carvings, first solo exhibition 1928 and its reviews, West Wind, 1928-1929 Portland stone and two jardinières.
6. Marriage and a Masterpiece 1929-1931.
Irina Radetzky, Hampstead, Leeds Reclining Figure, 1929 brown Hornton stone, Venice Biennale 1930., Royal College of Art resignation, reviews of Leicester Galleries exhibition, Herbert Read, Kent cottage.
7. Hampstead, Chelsea and Kent 1931-1936.
Moore at the centre of artistic activity: Seven and Five Society, Unit One; Read's 1934 book (See 0009257); visit to Altamira Caves 1934; Jack Hepworth: the first of Moore's many assistants, followed by Bernard Meadows; Moore as photographer of his work; first American contacts and the 1935-1936 elmwood reclining figures.
8. Surrealism, Constructivism and Socialism 1936-1939.
Republican sympathies in Spanish Civil War. Artists International Association exhibitions and political activities, ISE exhibition 1936, abstraction and Moore's texts in the Painter's Object (See 0009196) and Circle (See 0009178), Stringed Figures, part-time teaching at Chelsea School of Art, Recumbent Figure, 1938 green Hornton stone, beginning of friendship with K. Clark, Reclining Figure, 1939 elm wood,
9. Shelter Drawings and the Northampton _Madonna 1940-1944.
Moore's reputation was established, teaching ended at Chelsea School of Art, shelter drawings, studio bombed, purchase of Hoglands, Leeds exhibition, Coal Mine Drawings, Curt Valentin exhibition, Northampton Madonna and Child, 1943-1944 Hornton stone for Walter Hussey, Out of Chaos film, Family Groups commissioned by Henry Morris, death of Moore's mother.
10. Via New York and Venice to International Fame 1945-1948.
Dartington Memorial Figure, 1945-1946 Hornton stone, birth of daughter Mary, Cranbrook Reclining Figure, 1945-1946 elm wood, first academic honours, committee member/trustee of Tate Gallery, National Gallery, ACGB, etc; first visit to USA for MOMA exhibition and tour, reactions to Australian touring exhibition, Three Standing Figures, 1947-1948 Darley Dale stone, Battersea park, Venice Biennale 1948, Giulio Carlo Argan, sculpture prize.
11. Execration and Celebration 1949-51.
Moore's acutist contemporaneity now at an end, despite Munnings' 1949 attack in the Royal Academy speech. Wakefield exhibition toured Europe. Public reactions to Family Group, 1948-1949 bronze, Moore's first large bronze, and Standing Figure, 1950 bronze ; William Keswick, Anthony Caro as assistant, Moore's first visit to Greece for the Athens exhibition, David Sylvester and John Read's first film on Moore (See 01421).
12. Anthology Pieces and a trip to México 1952-1954.
Some of Moore's "best known...story telling"; sculptures: King and Queen, 1952-1953 bronze, Time-Life projects, Warrior With Shield, 1953-1954 bronze, Trustee of Tate Gallery, Unknown Political Prisoner committee, visit to São Paulo Biennale and México, death of Curt Valentin.
13. Unesco, New Zealand and Auschwitz 1956-58.
Companion of Honour, expansion of Hoglands estate, Harlow Family Group, 1954-55 Hadene stone, U.N.E.S.C.O. Reclining Figure, 1957-58 travertine marble carved in Querceta, New Zealand's reaction to Moore's exhibition. Auschwitz Memorial judge and Polish exhibition.
14. Good causes, Big Dealers, and Caro's Thrust 1959-62.
Supporter of leftish causes in newspaper letters, Marlborough, Noack, two- and three-piece reclining figures, German exhibition response, reaction against Moore's art by Caro generation of sculptors, Standing Figure: Knife Edge, 1961 bronze.
15. The Lincoln Center Piece 1962-1965.
Rounded geometry of Moore's later abstractions became ideally suited to architectural settings. Commissioning and construction of Reclining Figure, 1963-1965 bronze, its inauguration and subsequent technical problems and restoration. Order of Merit and other honours. Trustee of National Gallery. Relations with assistants; and the famous.
16. Toronto and the Tate Gift 1965-1974(i).
Experimental sculpture by young artists was to the fore at this time. Three Way Piece No.2: Archer, 1964-65 bronze funded privately for Toronto after public rejection. Offer of sculpture to Tate Gallery, and Art Gallery of Ontario Henry Moore Sculpture Centre and gift.
17. Towards Apotheosis in Florence 1965-1972(ii).
Forte dei Marmi, Don Giovanni sets and the Florence exhibition. Also Sundial, 1965-1966 bronze, Nuclear Energy, 1964-1966 bronze, and other commissions; Erasmus Prize, 70th birthday exhibition at the Tate Gallery, Moore's graphics.
18. Becoming an Institution 1973-1979.
Moore active, with his reputation beyond question. Marriage of Mary Moore to Raymond Danowski and establishment of the Henry Moore Foundation. Auden Poems, Moore Lithographs, Palumbo altar and the church deliberations, Zurich connections and exhibition, Paris exhibitions, West Dean tapestries, works in Washington and Dallas, 80th birthday exhibitions, Large Two Forms, 1966 and 1969 bronze for Helmut Schmidt.
19. Pain and Good Works 1980-1986.
Family rifts, death of his contemporaries, growing infirmity. Production and exhibition of works continued through the Foundation, including the Far East, Latin America and USA. Refurbishment of Leeds City Art Gallery with its Henry Moore Centre for the Study of Sculpture, and the Henry Moore Sculpture Gallery. Activities of the Foundation, illness and death on 31 August 1986. Summaries of obituary notices worldwide, Service of Thanksgiving in Westminster Abbey, and a final summing-up of his output and achievements.
Some other index references: British Council, Gordon Bunshaft, Harry Fischer, E.C. Gregory, Philip Hendy, Paul Nash, I.M. Pei, Pablo Picasso, John Piper, John Russell, Graham Sutherland.