Henry Moore: Six Reclining Figures with Red background - SOLD
Henry Moore (1898 – 1986)
Six Reclining Figures with Red background - 1981
Lithograph – Edition no. 2/50
22 x 24,8 cm (Image size)
Signed bottom right
Sold - 2012
Henry Moore has been hailed as the most influential and important British sculptor of the 20th century. He was greatly inspired by his studies of Classical, pre-Columbian and African art in the ethnographic collections of the Victoria and Albert, and British Museums. Wendy Campbell writes: Throughout his life Moore’s appetite for the history of world sculpture was insatiable. Drawings of sculptures in his early sketchbooks indicate that Palaeolithic fertility goddesses, Cycladic and early Greek art, Sumerian, Egyptian and Etruscan sculpture, African, Oceanic, Peruvian and Pre-Columbian sculpture particularly interested him. Moore believed passionately in direct carving and in ‘truth to materials’, respecting the inherent character of stone or wood. Almost all of his works from the 1920s and 1930s were carved sculptures, initially inspired by Pre-Columbian stone carving .
Moore had a collection of natural objects, driftwood, skulls, pebbles, rocks and shells which he used as inspiration to create abstract organic shapes. He placed great importance on drawing, making many preparatory sketches for each work. Most of his sketchbooks have survived and provide great insight into the artist’s methodology and development. Originally inspired by the Toltec-Mayan figure he saw in the Louvre, Moore created numerous interpretations of a reclining figure, which became his signature style. In his earlier reclining figure works, he deals principally with the mass of the subject, while in later works, he focuses on the contrast between the solid elements and the surrounding space - not only around the figures, but generally also through them, as he pierces the forms with openings. In ‘Six Reclining Figures with Red background’, six different interpretations and ideas for sculptures, based on the reclining figure, are grouped together. The artist’s hand is evident in the marks following the contours of the figures, loosely interpreting the bodily mass and finding the natural shapes hidden in its contours.
Responding to a question by his niece on why his works had such simple titles Moore replied: “All art should have a certain mystery and should make demands on the spectator. Giving a sculpture or a drawing too explicit a title takes away part of that mystery so that the spectator moves on to the next object, making no effort to ponder the meaning of what he has just seen. Everyone thinks that he or she looks but they don’t really, you know .
BIBLOGRAPHY
Wendy Campbell, http://www.dailyartfixx.com/about/
http://www.henrymoore.com/biography.shtml