A giant of modern sculpture, Henry Moore engaged the abstract, the surreal, the primitive, and the classical in vigorous corporeal forms that are as accessible and familiar as they are avant-garde. His large-scale works celebrated the power of organic imagery at a time when traditional representation was largely eschewed by the vanguard art establishment. Their overwhelming physicality and forceful presence promotes a charged relation between sculpture, site, and viewer.
Moore was born in 1898 in Castleford, England, and died in 1986 in Much Hadham, England. After teaching at Castleford Grammar School, England, Moore began studying at the Leeds School of Art in 1919. From 1921 to 1924 he studied at the Royal Academy of Art, London, with traveling scholarships to Paris (1923) and Italy (1925). He then taught at the Royal Academy of Art from 1924 to 1932, and from 1932 to 1939 at the Chelsea School of Art, London. Recent solo exhibitions include the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (2001); Henry Moore: Uma Retrospetiva, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo (2005, traveled to Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro; and Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Brasília); Moore and Mexico, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey, Mexico (2005); Imaginary Landscapes, Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids, Michigan (2005); War and Utility, Imperial War Museum, London (2007); Natural Form, Tate Liverpool, England (2007); Moore and Mythology, Musée Bourdelle, Paris (2008); Mother and Child: Henry Moore’s West Dean Tapestries, Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa (2008); Moore in America, New York Botanical Garden, New York (2008); Henry Moore and the Challenge of Architecture, Didrichsen Art Museum, Helsinki (2008); Henry Moore Sheep, Saffron Walden Museum, England (2009); Musée Rodin, Paris (2010); Tate Britain, London (2010); Blitz and Blockade: Henry Moore at the Hermitage, State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia (2011); Prints and Portfolios, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, England (2011); Henry Moore and the Classic Canon of Modern Sculpture, Kremlin Museums, Moscow (2012); Outside, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (2013); and Back to a Land, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, England (2015).
