‘The construction of the human figure, the tremendous variety of balance, of size, of rhythm, all those things make the human being much more difficult to get right, in a drawing, than anything else…its not just a matter of training – you can’t understand it without being emotionally involved…it really is a deep, strong fundamental struggle to understand oneself as much as to understand what one’s drawing’. (Raymond Mortimer, critic) Moore’s imagination needed the expressive possibilities of both painting and sculpture. ‘I wonder … very impertinently whether Mr Moore may not be a painter who has taken the wrong turning’. The drawings demonstrate that Moore was a pictorial artist as well as a sculptor. Drawing and carving are so different that a shape or size or conception which ought to be satisfting in a drawing will be totally wrong realised as stone.In my sculpture I do not draw directly on my memory or observations of a particular object, but rather use whatever comes up from my general fund of knowledge of natural forms’. is so different from flesh and blood that one cannot carve directly from life without almost the certainty of ill-treating the material. But I found this unsatisfactory – the two activities interfered with each other, for the mental approach to each is different.Stone. At one time I used to mix the two, perhaps carving during the day and drawing from a model during the evening. ‘I find drawing a useful outlet for ideas which there is not enough time time to realise as sculpture…Every few months, I stop carving for two or three weeks and do life drawing. Life drawings extend to the early 1930s, but are rare later on, were generally made on larger sheets. Pictorial art could reflect on the human condition by means of narratives developed through interaction of internal parts in a way that single-object sculpture could not. During the 1930’s pictorial art gave free range to his imagination more readily than sculpture. As a draughtsman, pictorial artist, or perhaps even painter as he should properly be thought of at this point in his career, Moore was able to work fast with ideas flooding onto the paper, ideas relating to sculpture but which he elaborated and embellished with detail that was essentially pictorial. In the 1930’s drawing became a central practise not just as a preliminary to sculpture, and the word ‘drawing’ gradually became less than adequate to describe these works which became recognised by the critics as pictorial art by the end of the 1930’s. The drawings helped establish Moore’s reputation and were widely seen as complementary presences in their own right. Drawing and sculpture were separate practises for Moore. Whilst her face is treated with reserve, her expression reflects an inner radiance and beauty. Her presence is conveyed through strength of form and articulation of her body. The figure is monumental and sculptural her strength and vitality embodied in a build- up of energy in her body mass. Henry Moore Complete Drawings 1930-9, London 1998, volume II, No AG 31.13, illustrated p.48 Felix Landau Gallery, Los Angeles, Modern Masters Drawings and Watercolours, No 33 3rd – 29th April, 1967, Buchholz Gallery, Curt Valentin, New York, Contemporary Drawings 26th September – 14th October, 1950, No 64. Santa Barbara Museum of Art, June 1950 (currently researching this) San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honour, Six British Artists, 1st May – 4th June,1950, no 373.50 Between 1950 to 1954, Frank Perls Gallery organised the first West coast exhibitions of Joan Miro, Marino Marini, and Alberto Giacometti Perls introduced southern California to artists he believed represented the best modern art of America and Europe. Frank Perls, Beverley Hills, 6 British Moderns 16th March -17th April 1950. Cincinnati Art Museum, 1950 (currently researching this) In the 1960s the gallery was at the forefront for contemporary and modern art exhibiting prominent European artists, including Henry Moore, Pablo Picasso and Francis Bacon. Widely respected as one of the most astute dealers in modern art, Valentin organised influential exhibitions and attracted major artists to his Gallery Bucholz Gallery (Curt Valentin), New York. Pen and ink charcoal and ink wash on paper Signed ‘Moore’ (lower right) Signed ‘Henry Moore’ verso
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