Henry Moore: Shadows on the Wall

Fascinating exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery looking at the air raid shelter drawings of Henry Moore and how they influenced his later work.

I love this sort of small exhibition which not only shows beautiful work but also weaves an interesting argument around them.

There was a lovely selection of shelter drawings. I hadn’t realised before that he just sketched and made notes in the shelters out of respect for the people. He worked them up into finished drawings later.

I also hadn’t realised that his studio was bombed leaving him unable to make large sculptures during the war so he turned to drawing.

The show concluded by looking at two post-war sculptural pieces which were visually influenced by the drawings and included a marquette for the relief wall of the Bouwcentrum in Rotterdam which I hadn’t come across before.

Closed 22 September 2024


Review

Evening Standard


 

 

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