Henry Moore Artwork Catalogue
Abstract Design: Rectangles with Trains
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Abstract Design: Rectangles with Trains
Datec.1946
Artwork TypeTextile Summary
Catalogue NumberTEX 16
Mediaserigraphy
Paperrayon
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Moore worked out several variations of this design in both a pattern of rectangles against a solid background for clarity, and against a flecked pattern so that the rectangles visually merge with the overall design. Upon closer inspection, the ‘trains’ are actually an elaborate array of eighteen different designs that are seemingly randomly placed. As some of the rectangles are truncated into squares, so the designs are also abbreviated, creating even further variations. The general effect echoes that of Moore’s drawings a decade earlier, such as Ideas for Relief 1933-35 (HMF 1066), in which rows of rectangles each contain linear designs that touch on both the fluid forms of the Surrealists and the hard-edged linear motifs of the Constructivists.