Henry Moore (1898-1986)

Born: 1898
Died: 1986
Nationality: British

Biography of Henry Moore

Henry Moore was an English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art.. He was trained in Leeds where he met Barbara Tiefworth, and in London, winning a travelling scholarship to Paris and Italy in 1925. He was one of the advocates of direct carving and has always used his material to express natural forms in terms of stone or wood, although he has used bronze extensively, especially for maquettes. His earliest major work was the North Wind (1928) for the London Underground building and it was followed by several commissions for architectural sculpture, e.g. the Time-Life building in London (1952-53), and works in the open air in London, Paris, Rotterdam, and Arnhem. From 1940, he made many drawings of the underground air raid shelters and of coal miners, while his Madonna statue for S. Matthew, Northampton, was completed in 1944. His international reputation dates from 1948, when he was awarded the sculpture prize at the Venice Biennale, and he is now well represented in museums, particularly Leeds, London (Tate), and Ontario, Canada.

“In my opinion, everything, every shape, every bit of natural form, animals, people, pebbles, shells, anything you like are all things that can help you to make a sculpture.” ~ Henry Moore as quoted in Five British Sculptors (Work and Talk) by Warren Forma, 1964.