"To be an artist is to believe in life." Henry Moore July 30th 1898 – August, 31st 1986.

"To be an artist is to believe in life."

Henry Moore

July 30th 1898 – August, 31st 1986

Henry Moore Early Life• Born July 30th 1898 in Castleford Yorkshire, England

• Father immigrated from Ireland as a mining engineer

• Interested in music and literature and wanting a life outside of the coal mines for his children Henry Moore’s father incouraged a formal education for his children

• Moore was the 7th of 8 children in a poor household

• From an early age Henry Moore enjoyed modeling in clay and at the age of 11 after hearing of Michaelangelos achievements he decided he wanted to be a sculptor

• His parents were against the idea of Henry trying to make a career out of sculpting because they saw it as manual labor.

• At the age of 18 he was called to the Army and was the youngest man in the Prince of Wale’s Own Civil Service Rifles regiment.

• In 1917 he was injured in a gas attack during the Battle of Cambria. He finished out his duty as a Physical Instuctor instructor.

• He later said of his army years “for me the war passed in a romantic haze of trying to be a hero”

• After the war, he received an ex-serviceman's grant to continue his education, in 1919 became the first student of sculpture at the Leeds College of Art and Design which set up a sculpture studio especially for him

'King & Queen' by Henry Moore, Glenkiln Great Britain

Vandals decapitated the work but it has since been restored

Henry Moore was one of the most celebrated and prolific artists of his time. Always recognized for his artistic talents sometimes critized and always the working artist. He was first inspired to do romantic style work but after regular visits to the to London’s museums, he acquired a great interest in Pre-Columbian sculpture. He was a star pupil, and in 1921 won a scholarship to the Royal College od Art in London.

In 1921 he held his first one man show, which attracted some distinguished purchasers and started getting commissioned work.

Moore married a beautiful russian named Irina Radetsky in 1929 and in 1931 his second one man show took place in which Jacob Epstein was qouted as saying “For the future of sculpture in England, Henry Moore is vitally important”. By this time he became very well known and a controversial figure. He received some criticisms for his personal style of direct craving which leaves tools marks and unsmooth edges as part of the finished work, which help lead to the modernism movement.

Family Group (1950) bronze, sited at the entrance to Barclay School, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England.

The Later Years

•1946- after several miscarriages, Irina gives birth to their daughter Mary Moore, Named after Moore's mother who passed a few years earlier

•The death of his mother and arrival of his baby focused Moore's mind on the family. Created many “mother-and-child” compositions; Reclining figures still remained popular.

•1946- Moore made his first visit to America to see his work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City

•Kenneth Clark was very

influenced by Moore's work.

Kenneth's position as member

of the Arts Council of Great

Britain secured exhibitions

and commissions for

Moore

Henry Moore's 'Large Two Forms' at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Palace

Kew's curators, working with the Henry Moore Foundation, have sited each piece so that its form and color react dynamically with the landscape and garden all around - the trees, grass, flowers and shrubs, of course, but also the sky, garden buildings, topography and occasionally the urban world outside Kew's walls, too.

• 1948- Moore won the International Sculpture Prize at the Venice Biennale

• 1950- Moore's first large-scale public bronze (Family Group) was sited at the entrance to a secondary school in a new town of Stevenage. Family Group was started as a sculpture for another school, but because of funding it was cut short.

• 1951- featured artist at the Festival of Britain; that same year Moore turned down Knighthood because he didn’t want to alienate himself from his fellow artists.

• 1955- featured artist at Documenta 1 (an exhibition) and also was awarded Companion of Honour, a reward for his outstanding achievements in arts

• Throughout the 50’s Moore began receiving increasingly significant commissions and in 1957 Moore sculpted the reclining figure for the UNESCO building in Paris. He began employing a number of assistants to help him due to the heavy flow of work.

• Moore's Nuclear Energy was revealed on the campus of the University of Chicago, 25 years to the minute after a team of physicists achieved the first controlled, self sustaining nuclear chain reaction

• 1963- awarded Order of Merit a reward for distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature and for helping promote culture

• He was a trustee of the National Gallery and the Tate Gallery. His proposal that a wing be devoted to his sculptures caused hostility from other artists

The Henry Moore Sundial SculptureSundial Plaza, Adler Planetarium & Astronomy

Museum, Chicago, IL41.8°N latitude, 87.6°W longitude

•1975- He became the first President of the Turner Society

•By the end of the 1970's there were nearly 40 exhibitions a year featuring his work

•1980- Chicago, Illinois Moore commemorates science with Man enters the Cosmos, made to recognize the space exploration program

•Henry Moore died on August 31, 1986, at the age of 88; His body was buried in the Artist' Corner at St Paul's Cathedral

•December 15, 2005, thieves entered the courtyard of the Henry Moore Foundation and stole a bronze statue valued at $5.3 million dollars; A reward is offered for information leading to its recovery, but it's feared it was stolen to melt down as scrap metal

“There are universal shapes to which everyone is subconsciously conditioned and to which they can respond if their conscious control does not shut them off “~Henry Moore

Henry Moore sculpture. Killian Court. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Henry Moore Foundation

•As Moore's wealth grew, he became concerned about his legacy. 1972, with the help of his daughter Mary, Moore set up the Henry Moore Trust to protect his estate from death duties

•By 1977, Moore was paying over $1.7 million (USD) in income tax; To lessen his tax burden he established the Henry Moore Foundation as a registered charity, Irina and Mary were his trustees

•It was established to preserve Moore's sculptures and to promote public appreciation of fine arts and foundation supports a wide range of projects some of them include, fellowships for artists, financial grants for art institutions, and student bursaries

•Operates from two main sites Perry Green (foundation’s headquarters-which organizes worldwide exhibitions) in rural Hertfordshire, and the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds

•HMI in Leeds is known internationally; its exhibitions vary from historic to contemporary sculptures