Lot Essay
The most recent of Moore's work (1975 to 1983) is character- ized by more mother and child images than any single previous period. Each of the various ideas explored experimentally in earlier years is now refined and renewed.... The Mother and Child: Block Seat is the Internal/External Form expanded so that the fetus has just emerged from the enveloping Mother figure. It is the Madonna and Child simplified. In the maquette of 1981 the original idea was more convoluted, and more reminiscent of the 1947 Madonna and Child. But as the artist reworked the image to larger than life size he turned to the simplification found in Internal/External Form. He finds in the simplifi- cation a monumentality for his last major work.... The massive forms are opened from within.... Moore remarked, "You can't come to the outside of a figure without knowing the inside, or without understanding its construction; it is like architecture which has an outside and an inside."
Henry Moore's work has a spirit and essence which is universal. It symbolizes human bonds and through his great body of works he explores the unity of art and mankind.... Roger Fry, the critic most admired by Moore, wrote in Retrospect that "the greatest art seems to concern itself most with the universal aspects of natural forms, to be the least preoccupied with particulars".... Moore heeded the words of his mentor and successfully reveals in us deeply rooted emotions and experiences. Moore found, as he stated, "...universal shapes to which everybody is sub-consciously conditioned and to which they can respond..."
The theme of the mother and child, then, not only refers to the paternal relationships but is about fertility, maternity and growth - universal ideas. It evokes images of the egg, the womb, and the uncarved stone...for Moore it means creativity. The art is reminiscent of some of the earliest primitive images due to its conceptual base. Moore's work is an attempt to get at the essential nature and to shape it from within. The artist identifies himself with the thing created, becoming the mother or the life giver of the child.... He breathes life and vitality into the inanimate object.... The mother and child theme represents the conceptual base of Moore's work in all its variances. It is a sculpture with a life of its own, revealing an inner spirit.
(exh. cat., Mother and Child: The Art of Henry Moore, Hofstra Museum, Hempstead, New York, 1988, pp. 34-37 and 39)
Henry Moore's work has a spirit and essence which is universal. It symbolizes human bonds and through his great body of works he explores the unity of art and mankind.... Roger Fry, the critic most admired by Moore, wrote in Retrospect that "the greatest art seems to concern itself most with the universal aspects of natural forms, to be the least preoccupied with particulars".... Moore heeded the words of his mentor and successfully reveals in us deeply rooted emotions and experiences. Moore found, as he stated, "...universal shapes to which everybody is sub-consciously conditioned and to which they can respond..."
The theme of the mother and child, then, not only refers to the paternal relationships but is about fertility, maternity and growth - universal ideas. It evokes images of the egg, the womb, and the uncarved stone...for Moore it means creativity. The art is reminiscent of some of the earliest primitive images due to its conceptual base. Moore's work is an attempt to get at the essential nature and to shape it from within. The artist identifies himself with the thing created, becoming the mother or the life giver of the child.... He breathes life and vitality into the inanimate object.... The mother and child theme represents the conceptual base of Moore's work in all its variances. It is a sculpture with a life of its own, revealing an inner spirit.
(exh. cat., Mother and Child: The Art of Henry Moore, Hofstra Museum, Hempstead, New York, 1988, pp. 34-37 and 39)