1.

Abstraction + Surrealism

            The conflict between the theories of surrealism + of pure abstraction leads many to look upon one as black and bad + the other as white and good.

            Yet it seems to me that a good work of art has always contained both abstract and surrealist elements – just as it has both classical and romantic elements (order and surprise?)

            An artist should use all his powers, + the intellectual ordering and designing of the work. when he takes up picks up a brush or chisel he does not cease to be a reasoning being - + the intellectual ordering + designing of the work within its medium, + _Ʌ^its critical control will be necessary, but the subconscious perhaps plays a greater part in the creation of the fullest works of art.

            (The Surrealist theory) or) Surrealism is widening the field of contemporary art + is giving more freedom to the artist (and _Ʌ^perhaps what is not unimportant, - stretching the appreciation of the public, (by shock tactics))

            Pure Abstraction, is re-establishing fundamental laws, bringing back form to painting and sculpture.

            There are many products of surrealism witch I personally dislike, - chaotic jumbles, paintings that are badly mixed salads of literary fancy; pornographic shock stuff, and the echoes of the nineties (Beardsley) decadence. But equally unimportant to me are the empty decorations produced in the name of abstraction.

Decoration + Abstraction

            There can be two kinds of (abstract) painting (+ sculpture) one which is “easy to look at”, tickles _üü ^{pleases ü} the visual

2.

pallet, + is pleasingant tasteful decoration, + the other which is much more, a charged up concentration,. + They are the results of two very different approaches or aims (attitudes in the artist.)

one, to make a pleasing harmony of nice shapes + colours, designed + ordered within the given area to; ^_____ aAn exercise in taste + two dimensional design, producing at its best, lovely decoration.

With    The other attitude _Ʌ^{the artist} also aims at ordering + relating forms + colours within his space, yet (⁺ added to the two dimensional design is a three dimensional vision (though ü not necessarily a 3 dimensional illusionist technique)) But there is a keyed-up tension within him, + forms + colours must be created and ordered, to the satisfaction + expression of this powerful emotional. (He may _Ʌ^even use forms and colours which in themselves, taken from their context, are harsh and unpleasant.)

Such work will get its meaning (its effect) from ^the unity ^the (unified + total effect) of its colour + form + not by literary reminiscences of its parts, (The literary association of its subject matter) But its unity will also have a surprise within it + a life of its own, ^{And this} which for most people will be ^{may make it} too intense, to hang upon the wall of a living room, there to serve as a distinguished decoration or as a restful pleasing change to the eye.ø

3.

“Drawings for Sculpture”

            Often I draw for the enjoyment of drawing but _Ʌ^{most times} I draw mainly as a help towards making sculpture;- as a means of generating ideas for sculpture, as a way of sorting out _Ʌ^sculptural ideas + developing them. Also, sculpture compared with drawing is a slow means of expression, + so drawing is useful as an outlet for ideas which there is not time enough to realise as sculpture.  And I use drawing as a method of study + observation of natural forms. But

            But the th difference there is between the _Ʌ^{mediums of} drawing + of sculpture should not be forgotten. A sculptural idea which may be satisfactory as a drawing always needs alteration when translated into actual sculpture. At one time, whenever I made ^did drawings for sculpture I tried to give them make them as much representations of real sculpture as I could, that is I drew by the method of illusion, of light falling on a solid object – But to make the drawing so complete as substitute (for the sculpture) _Ʌ^may weaken the desire to do the sculpture or make it only a dead realisation of the drawing. So _Ʌ^that I now prefer to leave myself a wider latitude in the interpretation of the drawing, + so ^{+no longer} do not make them into ^{try to make them complete} illusions of actual sculpture……..

            Sometimes I begin a drawing _Ʌ^{more in a surrealistic way} with no preconceived problem to solve, with only a desire to use pencil on paper, + make lines, tones + shapes with no conscious aim, but as my mind takes in what is so produced, a point arrives where some idea crystallises + then a control + ordering takes place until the whole has reached as satisfying a completion as I can xxxx ^{give it} or the impetus has worked itself out.

Surealism & Abstraction

Questions 4 & 5 continued                                                                                                                    4

surprise, - form and content, - classical and romantic,- intellect & imagination, - conscious and subconscious, are present in the same work,

[the following text not in Henry Moore's hand]

In the picture in my mind

the boy holds a rose, he has plucked the petals off,

the woman gathers the petals plucked from the rose,

the man watches the flight of a bird across the marshes

and I twist a piece of lead in my fingers

In the picture

the boy is saying “mother, I will fetch you more roses”

the woman is saying “what are these in my hands?”

the bird cries, the man says “bread for the hungry,

                        bread for the hungry.”

Abstraction & Surrealism.                                                                  

                        It seems to me that all good art contains _Ʌ^{has always contained} both surrealist & Abstract elements – (just as great artists in the past have both ^Xclassical & _X romantic elements in their work) so that ^{it is not surprising} we find that some of the work of the most important _Ʌ^contemporary artists working today can be claimed by both schools.