Artist: Henry Moore

Henry Moore, Sculptor, 1898 - 1986

An English sculptor whose bronze, marble, stone, or wood sculptures were famous for their monumental simplicity. Many of Moore's sculptures look as if they have been shaped by natural forces and a lot of the sculptures were specifically designed for permanent display outdoors.

Moor is famous for his series of reclining women though he also did male figures, mother and child groups and maskes carved from stone.

In addition to sculpture, Moore created many drawings, often influenced by WWII images.

Influences:

The aftermath of World War II, The Holocaust, and the age of the atomic bomb instilled in the sculpture of the mid-1940s a sense that art should return to its pre-cultural and pre-rational origins. In the literature of the day, writers such as Jean-Paul Sartre advocated a similar reductive philosophy.[34] At an introductory speech in New York City for an exhibition of one of the finest modernist sculptors, Alberto Giacometti, Sartre spoke of "The beginning and the end of history".[35] Moore's sense of England emerging undefeated from siege led to his focus on pieces characterised by endurance and continuity.

His wife also experienced several miscarriages. The past hurt and eventual joy of their first child prompted Moore to produce several mother-and-child pieces.