Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA

b. 1898 and died 1986

Henry Moore was an extremely influential sculptor and artist.His monumental abstract bronze sculptures are seen in many international cities at important venues like schools and museums.

Henry Moore knew from the early age of 11 that he aspired to be a sculptor.Moore showed promise as a sculptor from a young age and gained valuable academic guidance and scholarships in sculpting from numerous teachers, but ultimately his friendship with Barbara Hepworth propelled him to challenge his sculpting vision.Moore’s studies at the Leeds College of Art and Design afforded him the opportunity to study primitive art and ethnography at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum.His sculptures were well-regarded as a young man, and he won a traveling scholarship to Northern Italy in 1924 where he gained exposure to the great Italian Old Masters and Renaissance painters and sculptors.During this travel scholarship he went to Paris to the Louvre where he saw a plaster cast of the Toltec-Maya sculptural form, the Chac Mool.Moore continually revisited this reclining figure in his sculpture.

Moore then continued to elaborate and refine his primitive sculptures and reclining women to make them increasingly abstract; originally piercing the sculptures that hinted at bent limbs rejoining the body.As Moore’s popularity grew and the demand for his works increased he began making larger works.Moore became a spokesman for sculpture and modernism as well.He has created a lasting legacy with the Henry Moore Foundation which manages Moore’s work and supports exhibition and research activities on international sculpture.