Now open at The Lightbox, Henry Moore in Colour is a rare opportunity to see colourful drawings by Henry Moore spanning the artist’s career.
Best-known as one of the most influential and innovative sculptors of the modern era, Henry Moore (1898-1986) was also a remarkably talented and prolific draughtsman, producing nearly 7,500 drawings over seven decades.
Drawing provided Moore with a versatile tool, suitable to develop ideas for sculpture but also independently of it. For Moore, drawing was not just a means to support his sculptural practice, but also a method to create finished artwork in its own right, and an essential daily visual exercise. Whilst sculpture was primarily an art of form and space in which colour did not have a prominent role, in his drawings Moore explored the expressive potential of colour, often experimenting with painterly techniques.
By focusing on drawings, Henry Moore in Colour casts new light on this lesser known but enduring aspect of Moore’s art. From the life studies of his student days through to the casual drawings of his late years, these works from The Henry Moore Foundation reveal a deep appreciation of the unique characteristics and possibilities of colour in drawing, expressing a visual imagination that both integrates and enhances Moore’s practice in three dimensions.
Sebastiano Barassi, Head of Henry Moore Collections & Programmes said:
“Henry Moore in Colour reveals his profound love and appreciation of the unique characteristics and possibilities of drawing, for its own ends and as a tool to inform his work in other media. Moore continued to draw until the end of his life. This exhibition attempts to reveal the numerous ways in which it enabled him to study, express, and experiment.”
Henry Moore in Colour is one of three Summer of Moore exhibitions organised in partnership with the Henry Moore Foundation. Henry Moore: Shadows on the Wall is now open at The Courtauld Gallery in London and Henry Moore in Miniature at The Holburne Museum, Bath.
For further information: lightbox.org.uk
Image: Henry Moore in Colour at The Lightbox photo credit Hayden Wilde
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