Becoming Henry Moore

0023483 Becoming Henry Moore The Henry Moore Foundation Much Hadham

The exhibition catalogue to accompany Becoming Henry Moore, presented at Henry Moore Studios and Gardens, Perry Green 14 April - 22 October 2017 and at the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds 30 November 2017 - 18 February 2018. The exhibition contains 110 works with loans from 20 institutions, as well as from private lenders. There are 201 images in the catalogue not including the front cover. The Foreword by the Director of the Henry Moore Foundation, Godfrey Worsdale is followed by three substantial essays: 'A master in the making' by Sebastiano Barassi, Head of Collections and Exhibitions at the Henry Moore Foundation; 'The nation’s collections: Moore's personal wealth of influence' by Tania Moore, Curatorial Assistant at the Royal Academy of Arts; and 'Inner experience - Gudea, Sumerian sculpture and Henry Moore' by Dr Jon Wood, Research Curator at the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds.

Sebastiano Barassi's essay sets the context of Moore's formative years: his childhood and schooling in Castleford; the First World War; Leeds Art School; the Royal College of Art, and his early work. The essay begins with a quote from Moore taken from an interview by John Freeman in Hugh Barnett's Face to Face, 1964, where Moore tells of how, at about the age of 11, he was inspired to want to be a sculpture as a result of a Sunday School lesson on Michelangelo. The essay then goes on to reference subsequent key influencers and experiences including: his parents; the headmaster of Castleford Secondary School, T.R. Dawes and art teacher Alice Gostick; signing up to the Civil Service Rifles; being gassed at the battle of Cambrai in France in the First World War in February 1917; his time at Leeds Art School from 1919 to 1921 were he met Raymond Coxon and Barbara Hepworth; his scholarship to the Royal College of Art in London; his appreciation of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska; his visits to the British Museum; the influence of the pre-Columbian figure Chacmool; and the creation of his first masterpiece, the 1929 brown Hornton stone Reclining Figure (LH 59) - the centre piece of the exhibition Becoming Henry Moore; and his marriage in the same year to Irena Radetzski. Baressi's essay concludes in 1930, the year that Moore was selected to represent Great Britain at the Venice Biennale alongside Epstein and Skeaping.

Tania Moore's essay picks up the story focusing on the collections, artists and academics that influenced Moore, including: The Leeds Art College; Leeds Library; Roger Fry's Vision and Design; The National Gallery; The British Museum; The Tate; Leon Underwood; the Louvre; Museé Trocadéro and the National History Museum.

Jon Wood's essay starts with a quote taken from an article published in the Listener 5 June 1935 in which Moore expresses his appreciation of Sumerian art. This leads to an in-depth exploration of the interest that Moore and others had in Sumerian art and in particular, the figure of Gudea, Ruler of the City-State of Lagash II c 2120 BC. a 20th century cast of which, on loan from the British Museum, is a major feature of the Becoming Henry Moore exhibition. There is speculation as to where Moore first saw Gudea. There are detailed references to: The Development of Sumerian Art, 1935 and The Sumerians, 1928, by C. Leonard Woolley; The Meaning of Modern Sculpture, R.H. Wilenski, 1932; and Henry Moore: Sculpture, Herbert Read, 1934. Reference is made to: Moore's first exhibition at the Warren Gallery, London; to his membership of the Seven and Five Society and to Unit One, founded by Paul Nash; and to the artistic millieu, that included Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth and I