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Henry Moore
During this study, we have analyzed various artists and their works. There is a significant relationship between artists and their works. Different factors influence the works of different artists. In this study paper, we take an insight into Henry Moores pieces of art. Just as other artists of the time, he got inspiration from various factors like time, upbringing, education level, interests, and talents. More so, the pieces of the art may be a reflection of the artists views of him/her self, the world in which they lived, their reaction to aspects of that world, and ideas that have inspired the work. The study paper will explore the theme of the Family and Mother-Child relationship in most of Henry Moores artworks. Moore presents the family in light of the government rules on learning and arts in general. While trying to correct the shortcomings in family life shown he employs the use of various government policies (Moore and Sylvester 134).
The subject matter of the Mother and Child was a serious theme in the work of Henry Moore. This topic was fundamental in the entire development of Henry Moore as an artist. Moore expressed this Mother and Child theme in complex diverse ways, creating links with and influencing other themes. The mother and child design are implied both in the internal and external forms of thoughts and in the female tilting back figure that is, if not with a child, expectant. In the event, the mother figure is not pregnant, and then the artist had a way of portraying the figures potential to be one. According to Moores pieces of art, the child was often a supplementary part of the mother figure (Moore and Clark 67). Moores pieces of art show how his style changed over the years, which is an indication of his unique abstract attitude in his work. However, Moore seems to go back to some of the extremely primitive pieces.
Madonna and Child (1943-44, LH 226)
The subject of Henry Moores viewpoint in post-war ways of life is extremely much linked with the Mother and Child theme. During the post-war period, Moores works majorly comprised of shelter drawings often of Mother and Child figures. Madonna and Child art piece is the most notable piece of artwork, which earned Henry Moore a considerable commission from Canon Hussey Northampton. Madonna and Child (1943-44, LH 226) are at St. Matthews Church. In this piece, Moore put an effort to hold close a broad humanism aspect. In this piece, Madonna and Child, Moore did not concentrate on the subject of the Virgin birth. However, this piece of work falls under the category of mother and child subjects. Additional public commissions linked Madonna and Child to the theme of family. During this period, there were outstanding mother-child and family issues, which may have been the reason behind Moores sudden choice of Mother and Child and family Group pieces.
The war had of course affected negatively on the family ties. This disruption of families happened in various ways, the most notable one being death and injuries. In addition, there were several family break-ups through mass emigration and mobilization. The mass migration of people from war-prone cities to the other parts of the country separated mothers from their children. On some occasions, some families found themselves in risky places and difficult situations. This situation called for volunteers, who helped in the evacuation of displaced families. This led to stereotypes of the evacuee family, which had not been there in the earlier years. The evacuee had mostly lacked the basics of life and had to give up their moral standings to get these basic needs. For instance, evacuee women were termed as negligent sluts who could not take care of their young ones and families having nor responsible lifestyles. Even though these statistics might have been overstated, the typecast was a commanding one. The message drawn from this expertise was that the British states weak point was not educating its working-class women as homemakers. In a broader perspective, the post-war period saw these women lacking the material resources necessary to establish and maintain a decent home.
Another factor was the replacement of men at war with women. This move had an impact on the experience of social life after the war, as there were no women to take care of children. With men at war and women working in industries, children were left to cater for themselves. At the start of his career, Moore concentrated on carvings, both on stone and wood. At this point, his emphasis was on direct carving rather than first making a model. However, Moore had changed techniques in his artwork. After 1935, the sculptural notion still appeared in his works but with a major focus on modeling at a small scale. After the war, Moore depended less on preparatory drawings for sculptures. In this period, Moore experimented with sculptural ideas in his drawings. It is frequently possible to trace a suggestion for sculpture, back to a sequence of workings on paper. Moore took his ideas for sculptures from natural sources, for instance, stones, bones, shells, and pieces of wood.
Mother and Child (1942-25, LH 26)
The post-wartime was, hence, a period of apprehension about the prominence of the family and the welfare of the offspring. This period also had a cutback of traditional familial values, together with a transformation of attitudes towards children. This is where Moores artwork came in because the pieces suited such a model. The perfect example of Moores artwork, which had an impact on the periods family problems, is the Mother and Child (1924-25, LH 26). The major reason for this relation is the general orientation of Moores style and theme. His works had an apparent theme of humanism, which seemed to lack amongst people during the post-war period (Gates and McKay 78). Moores artwork of this time, including Mother and Child, was an expression of misfortune and his patent of individuality.
Through his artwork, Moore was a convenient figurehead in addressing the present issue. Moreover, his work of Mother and Child could be presented as a philosophical personal concern in family issues especially the mother-child relationship. It could be shown that Moore had an interest in the Mother-Child subject throughout his artistic improvement. In Moores recent works, it is almost clear that this was a reaction against the sentimental treatments of the Mother-Child theme. The background of the Cold War and ever-present anti-Communist propaganda should also be considered. After the war, several people used different methods to express their thoughts concerning the war and the effects the Cold War had on peoples lives, families, work, and even leadership. The discipline of painting in which every photograph tells a tale has long been indispensable in teaching history to every individual. To expressly comprehend the effect of the Cold War on the mother-child relationship, it was essential for the chosen figurehead of art to be involved with a human. In addition, the artist had to be an individualist who expressed his or her originality. All these traits were present in Henry Moores artworks, which made him the best candidate for this mother-child theme.
Family Group (1948-49, LH 269)
The Family Group (1948-49, LH 269), at Barclay School, was connected to its situation to the innovative program. The Family Group showed the harmony of the grouping through the sense of stability of forms and observable gestures. The art has all the figures holding the child, with the hand of the man moving the shoulder of the person. However, the Family Group remains a cold work regardless of this static occurrence. Moores work on Family Group got a place in the solution of the issues of the family unit, both in schooling and accommodation. For instance, there was the placement of the artwork in a new school followed by placement in a new town. The second placement of Family Group art by Moore was in Harlow New Town. Sir Kenneth Clark who was a passionate supporter of Moore made the launch of the artwork public.
The placement of Family Group artwork was mainly in schools, welfare centers, and dependable habitations for families. Moores artwork focused mainly on the nuclear family and the recipient of these attentions (Moore, Mitchinson, and Julian 216). The artwork was the correct tool of the welfare state, which benefits the family to the shortcoming of other forms of social commonality. People usually ignore the conscious involvement of the artist with the subject. Moore after all handled with the Mother and Child as an unambiguous theme, as a conscious subject. Family, in the post-war period, was a subject that most people had to consider before anything else. People needed to use various aspects to explain and instill the family aspect and art was one of these methods. Moores artwork especially on family issues was relevant in the reinstating of family relevance in society.
In some of Moores sculptures, there is a merging of figures, for instance, in the Mother and Child artwork. From the above discussion, mother and child, the artist and work of art can be connected to the casual relationship between the two factors. Moore presents the artist as an innocent primitive. In post-war civilization, the forms of conception and understanding combined to make certain an undetermined and even an empty occupation in which the name of the performer formed the solitary invariable. The mere profusion and diversity of Moores work on the Mother and Child subject block a definitive reading of several pieces. A work that is personal and widespread can only be described in terms of its sharpness from everything else. The artist is placed in an enceinte beyond society, being neither quite an object nor subject. Moores empty child, weakening to indicate in communal terms, yielding to any optimist understanding, can be explained only in stipulations of itself.
Works Cited
Gates, Henry Louis and Nellie McKay. The Norton anthology of African American literature. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1996. Print.
Moore, Henry and David Sylvester. Henry Moore. New York: F.A. Praeger, 1968. Print.
Moore, Henry and Kenneth Clark. Henry Moore drawings. New York: Harper & Row, 1974. Print.
Moore, Henry, David Mitchinson, and Julian Andrews. Celebrating Moore: works from the collection of the Henry Moore Foundation. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. Print.
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