Henry Moore's Reflections on Sculpture

Author(s): Albert Elsen

Source: Art Journal , Summer, 1967, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Summer, 1967), pp. 352-358
Published by: CAA

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Albert Elsen

Henry Moore's Reflections on Sculpture

There are many questions about Henry Moore's did a bit too. I don't see how you can cut art off from t
history of the world. Knowing what kings and queens
work unsatisfactorily answered or ignored by the inter-
pretative literature on him., Taking advantage ofmean
his is a real thing. To a child, the idea of a prince
can be more real than the local postmistress."
generosity this fall, it was possible for me to talk several
times with the sculptor at his home and studio outside ofMoore's strong feelings about continuing certain as
London. From my questions and our conversations there pects of the past led me to bring up Donald Hall's d
developed certain themes or topics upon which I found scription of him singing Methodist hymns while carvi
him particularly expansive or enthusiastic, and always non-religious works. The question was, what can sculp
articulate. The topics that form this article include ture provide the artist and his public that is the equiv
alent
Moore's attitude towards his art in public places, the im- of a religious experience which older artists cou
portance of Rodin and the human body for his work, achieve through sacred art for the Church?
reflections on training for sculpture (his own and that of
present day students), and his understanding of "human-
ism," "archetypal" forms and sculpture's purpose. It was
interesting that while he still exhibits a deep love for his
craft, there was no dogmatic truth-to-the-medium lecture
and Moore, who has mellowed on the subject, recognizes
-I~i'1??i j ?\K:?

that his style transcends any one material.

Talking with Moore one is struck by how much
thought he has given to his work and his willingness to
cite for what he has done, historical precedents or similar
practices by other artists. Moore feels very much a part of iiii

art's history and he has a wonderful way of making what .. . ...

.... .... . .....

happened in the past seem relevant today. For example, I

reminded him that some of his subjects, such as the King
and Queen, (Fig. 1) dealt with the past of myth and pre-
classical civilization. This type of subject, with the excep-
tion of Lipchitz's art, has not been a frequent one for
modern sculptors who have preferred since Rodin to stay
Fig. 7
away from history and literature. (I also recalled that in of W
his new biography, Donald Hall had written that these
subjects related to works Moore had made for his daugh-
ter, Mary.) Moore responded, "Knowing about past sculp-
ture means that you must also know about its subject
matter, and mythology is interesting. Lots of others have
done it. Picasso used lots of Greek mythology and Braque

1 Three books stand out among the recent publication ...............

Moore: Philip James' Henry Moore on Sculpture, a c

lection of his statements on art (expensively priced
extravagant format instead ?of
7.1 a more modest ed
available to students which the subjects call for
Moore would like), and Donald Hall's biography, Hen
Moore, which is admirable in its lucid, accurate, uns
mental, unspeculative, unpedantic reporting.
MOW s Her
Read's most recent book on Moore is his best, but t
reader sometimes feels that Read gets between Moor
his work, and there are certain questions
Fig. 2. Henry Moore, he does not
RECLINING FIG
that have led to this article.16'3" long. UNESCO Building, Paris.

ART JOURNAL XXVI 4 352

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 "What one wants is to lift art above the ordinary, to the war because a minister approached him directly),
take you above the commonplace. Rembrandt did this has not sought to interpret consciously any institution
continually. He could draw the commonplace, an old series of events or "public values." For several months
man or an old woman, and make that person noble so while working on his UNESCO commission (Fig. 2),
that you felt his work was deeply significant of life. All did try to interpret that organization's aims in terms
good art is religious in the sense that it makes life more his own repertory of figures, but with no success.
important, meaningful and of greater significance than a turned out that his projected figure of a child, for exa
photograph. In the past religious art was important for ple, would have been four times the scale of a grow
telling stories, in educating the people. That sculpture man. (When dealing with the figure, Moore prefers to
no longer has to do this may be a gain. People today strict his sculpture to a slightly larger than life size. T
don't look any more for the literary side. What artists in Lincoln Center piece is an exception.) "When I decid
the past may have asked for, to have people appreciate on making a Henry Moore piece-the next one I'd ha
what they got out of the sculpture and not the propagan- done for myself, but raised to the right scale-I becam
da for religion and substitutes for books, is now possible happy."
to have. Now all artists are self-employed. If Giotto had Contrary to Herbert Read's account, the recently
not had commissions he might have just sat around in his completed memorial to Nuclear Energy Atomic Piece,
workshop. I like the incentive to work for myself. I can't (Fig. 3) did not come about because the sculptor first
work for communication. When I work for myself I am meditated on the work of Fermi and the implications of
not so conceited as to think that if I do something it will nuclear fission, or the shape of an atomic cloud. As three
be so profound that no one else can understand it. If it visiting University of Chicago professors discussed in his
gives me deep satisfaction, I am confident that others home the purpose of the memorial for their campus,
now or later will have a similar sympathy or condition- Moore who had become discouraged by the proposal re-
ing towards it." membered that two weeks before he had made a small
Moore has worked on a number of commissions and maquette, (since broken and lost), that to his mi
has definite ideas about how he works best and what he seemed relevant to the problem. He showed it to
doesn't do. With the exception of the Northampton guests,
Ma- but told them not to decide until he had mad
donna and Child (which the artist consented to do after
working scale model and then to re-examine it. Wh
they came backa few weeks later they accepted the fo
inch model as right for the project.
As Moore enlarged the original conception from th
model to the forty inch working model and then to
final nine foot version, important changes were mad
As he explained it, the small maquette could be seen a
at once and from many points of view. Being conscious
the difference in effect of a large scale work in terms of
proportions, viewing angles and the time required
study it, he reworked the interior area and the suppo
of the dome. When he could actually get inside t
model this changed his conception of its space. He als
became conscious of the thematic implications of
work. While we were standing in front of the bronze
of the working model, Moore gestured to its all over c
formation and commented that for him it had "the mor-
bid quality of a skull." He acknowledged that it came
out of the Helmet series, and he indicated where he saw
an ear and eye slot form. Without amplification, he ob-
served that the smoothness and brilliance of the warm

gold patinaed bronze was important for the themne.

the contrast between the dome and its supports, Moo
did observe that "nuclear power is both for good
bad, it is not all destructive. As I worked on the piec
rationalized to myself what this power would be used
I wanted the lower part to be like architecture, some
thing constructive, something with form."
Fig. 3. Henry Moore, ATOMIC PIECE, 1964, bronze, 48" high. Sketch for The
It has been suggested to Moore by friends in Cana
Memorial to Nuclear Energy, University of Chicago. that his sculpture entitled Archer (Fig. 4), recently i

353 Elsen: Henry Moore's Reflections on Sculpture

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stalled before the new Toronto City Hall, may someday
become a civic and then a national emblem. To an artist
who loves Michelangelo and knows and respects the role
that civic sculpture like the David played in the Renais-
sance, such a prospect is of course pleasing. But Moore,
ever the Yorkshireman with both feet on the ground, Ali

points out that he did not consciously intend his work to

interpret Toronto or Canada, and that in fact he does
not choose to work like Renaissance artists who made
civic emblems to embody abstract ideas or the aims of in-
stitutions. "And I think this may be for the best!" That
his sculpture is now in Toronto was an accident and not
the result of a consensus by that city's leaders. In fact, it
is there despite the majority of Toronto's aldermen who
voted against it. Its acquisition was the result of an inter- sit':

ested architect and a determined mayor backed by some

enlightened businessmen. (Moore had also originally
thought of another sculpture, Sliding Piece, for the site Wil. ... .... ... ...

but changed his mind as he studied the building's charac-

ter.) Archer has been sought by West Berlin (and other
countries) and it takes little imagination to see how this
Fig. 4. Henry Moore. THE ARCHER, 1964/6
piece could easily become a national symbol. Square, City Hall, Toronto.
Moore accepts commissions on his own terms so that
the normal flow of his work is not interrupted. The
client must choose from what Moore has done or is doing
on his own. "In the case of the Lincoln Center piece ture
(Fig. that has a lot of interpret
5) I saw a chance to carry out a private idea, thatportant
of a that there be continu
woman and rock rising from the water. There was no
have an intrinsic interest in
compromise. I did relate the sculpture to the pool itversal
was touch' it will interest g
in."
This last observation brou
Moore has his own set of principles for making "archetypal" forms which h
sculpture that will have an architectural setting, and they one analyst have credited
are not headed by concerns for "social relevance." His finding. Moore agreed that h
guiding considerations are that: "The scale must not be philosophical archetypal form
silly-not too small or too big. The sculpture's rhythm gelo and the Renaissance Neo
must be right in relation to that of the architecture. I word he doesn't seem happy
might like an upright sculpture against a horizontal was absent from the reminisc
building, for example. The general shape as well as he gave to explain how he had
rhythm of the sculpture must provide contrast with the "Once a week for an entire
building. The sculpture's proportions as well as direction Museum. It dawned on me at
is important. Another consideration is the approach, were fundamental ideas in sc
whether or not it is frontal, or as at the Lincoln Center, and people widely separated
from all around and visible from a ramp. I wanted to that they sometimes hit on
take full advantage of the sculpture in the round at the similar heads from Mexico a
Lincoln Center. The material has to provide a contrast. mental ideas of shape or fo
Bronze would not have been effective against the shadows mans. These are not philos
and pilotis of the UNESCO building. When I changed to with. It's the way we are mad
light Roman travertine, the sculpture achieved more of yourself with what you are m
an impact (Fig. 2). Finally, the sculpture should be in it- fundamentally the same. Wh
self good sculpture and have an intrinsic interest irre- the British Museum was that
spective of site. It must have more than a mediocre vision. not accepting what I'd been
It must make you stop and look at it of its own accord Greek and Renaissance sculpt
irrespective of where it is. If it has an immediate expla- important achievement. Th
nation as to why it is there, the average person will see mental core. There was a wo
this, go away and lose interest. It is better if the sculpture into realizing that one cou
should be of some challenge or of a mystery. I want sculp- things, or whatever one came

ART JOURNAL XXVI 4 354

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 Some of the things Moore has come across that have works like the Three Point Piece (Fig. 6) and Archer, I
been of great importance for his sculpture are stones and
have to feel the disposition of their weights, where the
bones which he hoards in his small studio reserved for pressures are, where the parts make contact with the
the daily routine of "playing with new ideas" in small ground. . ... I liked in Rodin the appearance of pressures
models. Moore could exhibit his bones and stones and from beneath the surface, whereas Maillol worked from
the outside .. "
because of the taste for the found object and their simi-
larity to his work, they might be very popular. But So much has been written about the influence of
found objects and primitive art on the work of M
Moore stubbornly believes that he can make more interest-
ing shapes. "When I study a bone, I look for its human that it has drawn attention away from the import
implications. Taste is not the guide. I'm not interestedRodinin and other modern sculptors as well as that
the niceties of a shape." This caused me to ask Moore partial figure. To co-relate Moore's previous comm
about his reported avoidance of beauty in his work. "Iabout do the partial figure and his interest in Rodin
not make sculpture just for harmony and beauty. It needs him if he recognized this influence on his own wo
some strange meaning." The sculptor does not want to did and added Brancusi's work. He pointed out tha
diminish a sculpture's force or vitality to accommodate a
partial figure idea helped him to "focus on parts
"nicety" of shape. Vitality is an essential ingredient bodyfor and to study their structure intensely," but
his concept of the dramatic. Its antithesis for Moore the 1930's he also reacted against fragmentation "b
would be in the work of Brancusi, to whom he is indebt- ing whole figures." I posed the question put to me
ed, as he acknowledges with respect. But Moore feels that of my students who argued that to remove the hea
Brancusi's work is lacking in energy or evidence of inter- the figure in sculpture makes it impossible to de
nal pressure and a sense of growth. the subject's humanity, and its intelligence, and th
There are bones in Moore's private hoard that al- result the artist could only deal with the biologic
ready have the look of his sculpture. Some have been built of human existence.
up by the addition of plaster. But there are other found "Wrong! Michelangelo knew that the human body
objects that don't look like anything he has done. Moore could express the intellectual and the highest feelings.
can pick up a bone and show by a movement of his hand Look at Michelangelo's drawings and use of the body.
how a section evokes for him the twist of a thigh, the Michelangelo never was a portraitist. He avoided it. The
tightening of a muscle and how he can see it as a poten- expression on his faces is no more intense that the rest of
tial sculpture. He seems to like objects that conjure a his figures. Facial expressions, a smile, a grimace, are not
sense of stretching. "I don't want forms that suggest profound. Actors can do those things even with masks.
death or the inert." "The face shows superficial expressions. Much deep-
Picking up a small bone that looked like a torso, er indications of a person's feelings will be found in ac-
Moore commented, "A torso fragment has a condensedtion, all movements of the body, how they hold them-
meaning. It can stand for an entire figure just as Rem- selves. Look at someone from a distance where you can't
brandt's self portraits tell me more about his life view see their hands and face. By their movements you recog-
that the Night Watch with all its figures. . ... Rodin's
nize who they are. You recognize their spirit by their gen-
Walking Man represents for me everything I love in eral rhythms and general proportions. If you isolate the
Rodin." Moore owns a superb cast of this piece and hehead on a base and look at it from a distance it looks just
enthusiastically talked about what he admired in Rodin
like a dummy. You have to study the general disposition
and had learned from him. From reading, while still aof forms. Michelangelo's bodies could express terrific
student, Rodin's conversations on art with Paul Gsell, feelings of elation, nobility of aspiration.
Moore recalled that "Rodin had said that when things "What is manly strength? To show it you wouldn't
just make an imitation of the body beautiful type of
were not going right to throw the piece on the floor, and
have a fresh look at it. This inspired me when bogged thing. This is a superficial point of view, it is mistaking
down to work harder and make dramatic changes, but muscle for strength, or anatomy for the spirit. It is
also to consider the possibilities of accident .... Rodin
mistaking the outer appearance for the inner existence.
also taught me a lot about the body; its asymmetry from The human body can mean a tremendous amount. The
every point of view, how to avoid rigid symmetry, the dance is a good example of how to use the body in an ex-
flexible parts of the body, the head, jaw, neck, thorax,pressive way. Even when still, it can be expressive.
pelvis, knees etc., and that these axes should not parallel "The head and the hands are important from a liter-
each other. These were ways of giving the figure vitality.ary point of view. Without the head and the hands it is
Rodin perfectly understood Michelangelo... Rodin had difficult for the ordinary person to recognize what he is
a great sensitivity to the inner workings and balance of looking at. I can take a part or a lump from Michelange-
lo and
the body. He could make you feel one of his modelled Bernini and see in these the same differences that
feet gripping the ground. Rodin helped give me that in- exist in their whole figures."
sight into empathy-feeling into his sculptures. In my own I brought up the subject of what part of the body

355 Elsen: Henry Moore's Reflections on Sculpture

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 i:- W.M.

~. ....... .........

X,,:j::: ~i$:;i~l -ii~~i:ii'~

In.

W:l

Fig. 5. Henry Moore, RECLINING FIGURE, 1963/64, bronze, 18' X 30'. Lincoln Center, New Yo

had been most important to Moore pressingin

through
his the workskin ...over
I know there
the is no bone in
years, asking if it had been the skeletal and muscular sys-the breasts, but I like breasts and I used them. I wanted a
tem or the flesh. He replied that the first two were most continuous rich structure pressing through soft flesh."
important: The matter of fact way Moore speaks about his work
"You can't come to the outside of the figure without almost makes one forget how imaginative they look and
knowing the inside, or without understanding its con- that there is a visionary side to Moore apparent only
struction; it is like architecture which has an outside and through his art. His manner reminded me of a statemen
an inside." he made in 1964:
Moore felt that while Rodin didn't know how to "I think a sculptor has to be a practical person. He
make sculpture to go with architecture, "he reallycan't
knew be just a dreamer. If you're going to shape a piece
the architecture of the body. Rodin was concerned of with
stone into a sculpture you must handle a hammer and
the expressive side of the figure." chisel . . . you must be a workman; you must be some-
The real skeleton becomes the outer shell of the body with his feet on the ground."2
body in my work. If a work was all flesh and no bone,One it need not actually visit the sculptor to be aware
would have no architectural structure." of his commitment to his craft. It is in his biographies,
Moore clenched his fist making his knuckles white but more important it is plainly visible in his bronze,
and pointed out how he wanted to show the force of the stone and wood pieces. But talking with Moore and
bone's pressure on the skin. "When I was first working watching
in the way he handles his works do give other in-
hard material like stone, I wanted to make the figure
look hard, like bone. Bone is hard, like my knuckles
" Warren Forma, Five British Sculptors, New York 1964

ART JOURNAL XXVI 4 356

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Fig. 6. Henry Moore, LAMBERT LOCKING PIECE, 1963/64, bronze, 1715/2" high.
Bangve Lambert, Brussels.
Fig. 7. Henry Moore, UPRIGHT INTERIOR FORM
(FLOWER), 1951, bronze, 221/2" high. Private collection.

sights. He watches over the lives of all his sculptures like how it was "like putting your hands on the hips of a
the doting and thoughtful parent he is in his own family young girl."
life. He knows who owns his pieces, where they are set up When asked about specific technical or stylistic as-
if out of doors, and how they are aging. He will write to pects of a work such as Three Point Piece (Fig. 6),
friends in other countries to check on how smog has Moore's answers usually have the ring of common sense.
affected a patina, or to see if the powers-that-be control- My question had been whether or not this work in its
ling the amount of water in the pool at the Lincoln Cen- smoothness had been made from an idea found in bone
ter have finally given him the water level promised, there- or stone. He replied that it came from a plaster m
by covering the concrete supports of the sculpture. He quette. The smooth polished surfaces were suggested t
gives advice to collectors on the care and cleaning of hishim as he worked "by the taper of the supports, wher
sculptures, and shows them in his garden the weather- the roughness of many of the reclining figures was mo
ing effects on concrete, stone, plaster and bronze. He appropriate to their analogies with stone."
wistfully hopes that in cities like Toronto every six I have heard young British sculptors criticize Moor
months the authorities will have the Archer washed and for enlarging his work from small maquettes, while th
waxed to preserve the golden brown patina against dark- themselves working from small scale models dream of e
ening. He can tell you how much civic soot his sculptures larging their own works. Moore daily oversees the enlar
gathered in the Museum of Modern Art Sculpture Gar- ing of his models by two assistants so that he can be su
den in a certain period of time. Moore loves to pound his of the accuracy of their work, and also to make adjus
beautiful bronze casts from the Noack foundry in West ments in proportion for the scale change. Ideally, like
Berlin, to instruct his visitor in the sound and thickness Michelangelo, he would like to work alone, but havi
of fine casting and draw attention to the flawless chasing assistants frees him to concentrate on new ideas. That he
of seams in the big casts. He will rub a surface or glide uses assistants has also drawn criticism from younger ar
his hand over bronze and stone while commenting that ists, but sometimes these same critics send their own
his sculptures must return to him the feeling he has had metal work out to Italian craftsmen in London who
from touching the living body. He placed his hands on know how to make difficult joinings in metal. Ma
the Upright Interior Form: Flower, (Fig. 7) and spoke of Moore's former assistants such as Caro and Witkin have

357 Elsen: Henry Moore's Reflections on Sculpture

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gone on to become well known in their own right. classes and teaching, interesting students in the human
(Moore is not the only one to see a kind of schema of his body generally .... I drew from life until World War II
reclining figures in some of Caro's work.) when it became difficult to get models . . . but I con-
Despite living in the country, Moore is very much tinued looking and studying the body to know what it is,
aware of what is happening in contemporary sculpture. what was its articulation. You can't do without it. And
His general feelings strike me as being mixed. He is glad you have to be interested in materials. (I was also inter-
to see British sculpture so vigorous, unlike the days when ested in bones and pebbles.)3 This all leads to working
he was a student, but he regrets certain shifts in teaching out goals. You come to have deeper meaning in your art
young artists: through your life. A young twenty-year-old welder today
"The figure should still be taught in art schools. can make something quickly, and it is amusing, but it
Ten or twenty years from now we will see that not teach- won't have in it a life time of interest and struggle built
ing it was a weakness and students will blame their on tradition, plus personal observation. Young people
teachers of today for it. When abstraction is so common, haven't put enough in the bank before drawing checks
people will want to go back to the figure. We can't escape on their account."

from our own bodies. The good students of the future I reminded Moore that he had often been praised as
will set themselves more difficult things to do than what a humanist because of his use of the human figure. W
is being done today. The figure is important in training he satisfied with this basis of judgment? Moore felt th
students to be observant. Nothing is more demanding, or an artist's humanism was too narrowly based if deter-
a better means of judging right and wrong than work mined by his subject matter or themes. For him, a bett
from the human figure. We can be more critical of figure indicator is the seriousness of the artist's thought and t
sculpture than anything else." coming to grips with important problems. Young artist
Moore also regrets that many young sculptors suc- today, Moore feels, too often limit the scope of their
cumb to the ease of making something three dimensional thinking and settle for too little in the way of problems.
through welding. He feels that they are too content with Though less emulated than at any time in many
too little and want too much too soon. Talk of such sub- years, Moore is still strongly respected by younger artis
jects easily leads Moore into recollections of his own past, for making sculpture important in England. The feelin
which while familiar through his biographies are worth is often expressed that he alone could make a personal
retelling: art out of his figure and nature metaphors. His isolatio
"I came at a lucky period for one's natural interests. is a form of tribute rather than neglect. In response t
I had liked stone since I was a child and there was a re- the criticism of younger artists that his work seems irrele
naissance of direct carving. Modigliani was admired vant and to their search for an art that reflects their environ-
there was Epstein. There weren't any other English one remembers Moore's own feelings about the i
ment,
sculptors. Here was a world to conquer! I was continual- escapability of the body.
ly told there was no future in sculpture. My brother wasInevitably we came to discuss Moore's views on the
afraid he would have to support me. Epstein, Gillpurpose and of sculpture. I recalled that for Rodin they we
theatraditional aims of educating, elevating and d
Dobson were the only ones showing, and there was
sculpture show only every other year. The Leicester lighting
Gal- the public. Moore said he would accept this vie
of sculpture "if the moralizing, story telling and n
lery was the only place you could exhibit and there were
tionalistic
fewer buyers for sculpture than the fingers on one hand. I associations were dropped. I believe tha
knew Gill was a craftsman. Epstein was then thought of
sculpture can educate us in our vision, add to our aware
as an American. I respected Dobson, but he was trying to of life and art, and elevate the spirit." Moore's per
ness
build on Maillol. When I looked at Mexican art, Sir sonal idea about sculpture's purpose is that "Sculpture
John Rothenstein told me that I was not a Mexican andunderstanding the shape of things and extending o
to look at Stanley Spencer. I told him there were no En-sensibilities into the world around and within us."
glish sculptors. One had to go back to Saxon times when
English sculptors were then as good as any in the world,'I asked Moore what made these objects possible as
but that was also an international art. It was possible for
sources for art at the time. He remembered that Picasso
me to look around. I wanted to know about world sculp-
was doing work along these lines in the late 'twenties.
ture, modern art, Paris, primitive art. Today young
sculptors have such a variety of directions, even more
than painters.... ALBERT ELSEN who has written frequently for ART
"All art is a mixture of your experience with nature,JOURNAL is the author of three books on Rodin and the
from your own living body and from past art. Cezanneintroductory textbook PURPOSES OF ART. He is on the
knew his Louvre, Michelangelo knew his Belvedere torso,faculty of the Department of Fine Arts at Indiana Uni-
Nicolo Pisano studied Roman ruins. But you have to versity and is presently on leave as a Guggenheim fellow
look at nature too. My background included years of life in England. 0

ART JOURNAL XXVI 4 358

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