The Henry Moore’s exhibition at the Tate Britain (that will run until the 8th August) is part of a series that the Museum has presented, focused on authoritative artists, seen under a new light.
Henry Moore is a very familiar and also popular artist and the 1988 show at the Royal Academy was unquestionably his most representative exhibition. However, after that big show, just a part of his works was shown again. The Tate’s curator Chris Stephens said that many of Moore early, pre-WWII works, won’t have been seen by a whole generation.
In these earlier pieces emerges the mark the First World War left on the nineteen year old Moore, while he was the youngest member of a British Regiment. Besides, an injury suffered during an attack put Moore’s military career on halt and caused him to reconsider his future. When he was forced to return home and convalesce for two months in hospital, he resolved to continue his childhood dream of being sculptor.
At the Leeds School of Art’s he became the first pupil in the 1919 and was here that he met Barbara Hepworth and picked up his first commissions. In the Moore’s early pieces, the trauma of his wartime experience is often expressed in a stronger way.
One of the aims of the Tate’s exhibition was re-capture this side of the Moore’s art and understand the influence of that on the following works. In facts, Moore remained fascinated by the more claustrophobic and dramatic aspect of war, as we can also notice studying his works inspired by the Second World War.
