Henry Moore: AGO Boxed Notecards

Henry Moore’s sculptures, created during his long and prolific career, embody many of the most important developments in modern sculpture. Born in Yorkshire, England, he studied at the Leeds School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London. During his formative years he was influenced by African, Oceanic and pre-Columbian sculpture and by the organic forms of Arp, Giacometti and Picasso. Although his sculpture is rooted in the figurative, humanist tradition, Moore relied on natural forms -bones, shells, pebbles - to generate ideas for sculpture. The reclining figure is a dominant theme in his work. Of the three fundamental poses of the human figure - standing, sitting, reclining -the last gave Moore the greatest spatial and compositional freedom. The artist applied drapery to his reclining female figures to create forms that hover between landscape and the human body. He poetically interpreted the female figure as a metaphor for landscape: knees and breasts echo the contours of mountains, while the holes through his sculptures are reminiscent of caves or sea-worn cliffs. His public commissions are found in major cities around the world.

Published with the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Twenty assorted full-color 5 x 7" blank note cards (five each of four styles) with envelopes and decorative box.
The titles are: Seated Figure, 1930; Maquette for Oval with Points,1968; Two Piece Reclining Figure No. 2, 1960; and Working Model for Three Way Piece No. 2: Archer, 1964.