Henry Moore

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CASTLEFORD PEOPLE - HENRY MOORE

On this page:

Henry Moore's Biography

Henry Moore Places in Castleford

Schools that Henry Moore Attended

Further Information (Books and Internet Links)

Biography

Quotes are from "Henry Moore: My Ideas, Inspiration and Life as an Artist" by Henry Moore with John Hedgecow. Book cover - Henry Moore, My Ideas

Published in paperback 1999 by Collins and Brown Ltd. ISBN 1 85585 735 9.

30th July 1898: Born at Castleford.

I lived in Castleford, apart from being in the army, until I was 22 years old. One of the first and strongest things I recall were the slag heaps like pyramids, like mountains, like artificial mountains.

	1910: Scholarship to the Secondary School, later Castleford Grammar school
	1917: While serving in First World War gassed.
	1919: Started studies at Leeds College of Art
	1921: Won Royal Exhibition Scholarship in Sculpture. Started studies at the Royal College of Art, London.
	1924: Became instructor in the College's sculpture school.
	1928: First public commission (a relief for St James's building)
	1929: Married Irina Radetzsky.
	1932: Established department of sculpture at the Chelsea School of Art.
	1940: Drawings of people sheltering in the London underground; appointed official war artist; moved to Much Hadham, Hertfordshire.
	1946: Birth of daughter, Mary.
	1948 Awarded International Sculpture Prize at the 24th Venice Biennale. The first of many prizes and awards.
	1953 Awarded International Prize for Sculpture at the 2nd Sao Paulo (Brazil) biennale.
	1962 Made Honorary Freeman of the Borough of Castleford.
	1973 Major exhibition at Florence.
	1974 Henry Moore Sculpture Centre at Toronto, Canada opened.
	1977 Henry Moore Foundation formed; retrospective exhibition of drawings at the Tate, London.
	1978 Eightieth birthday exhibitions.
	1981 Major exhibitions in Spain; made Honory Freeman of Leeds.
	1982 Exhibitions in Mexico; opening of the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds.
	1984 Exhibition in Germany.
	31st August 1986 Died.
	2000 Henry Moore Square built on site of his birthplace.
	2007 A second Henry Moore Square named in Castleford's high street - Carlton Street.

Places

His works of art can be seen in many countries including at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park near Wakefield. A version of his Reclining Figure Draped is on show outside of the Civic Centre at Castleford (see photograph). Some items from his life are on show at the Henry Moore clinic in Castleford.
The house (30 Roundhill Road) where Henry Moore was born has been demolished. This picture shows a memorial garden that was built on the site.
The garden was replaced in 2000 by Henry Moore Square. It consists of a sculpture made up of a path, representing Henry Moore's life, with arches along the way. The first arch, pictured here, is in the place of the front door to Henry Moore's house.

During the War, Henry Moore produced pictures of people sheltering in the London underground. As a result of the pictures' popularity he was asked to do some work about the reserved occupations. He replied, "I had thought of going to my home town...which has several coalmines." In December 1941 he returned to Castleford to sketch miners at Wheldale Colliery where his father had worked.

When I first went down a mine, as a war artist, I thought what wonderful, what unbelievable people coal miners are. It is the worst life one could ever be made to have.

Henry Moore is world famous. This plaque about him and his work can be seen in the Mexico pavilion of World Showcase, Epcot Center at Walt Disney World near Orlando/Kissimmee in Central Florida:

Schools

The infants and junior school at Temple Street:

Temple Street school

Castleford Grammar School, now Castleford High School Technology College:

Castleford High School

Further Information

BOOKS

Cover of Celebrating Moore

Celebrating Moore : Works from the Collection of the Henry Moore Foundation

Henry Moore book cover 2

Henry Moore by Dorothy Kosinski, the Barbara Thomas Lemmon Curator of European Art, Dallas Museum of Art.

This handsome book seeks to reassess Moore's crucial contribution to art of the last century. Looking at Moore's early engagements with primitivism, his 1930s dialogue with abstraction and surrealism, and his post-war interest in large-scale public sculpture, the authors show how the sculptor helped to define some of the most significant aspects of modernism. Photographs, some by Moore himself, of over 120 works, including plasters, carvings, bronzes, and drawings, are features, many of which are previously unpublished. This catalogue accompanies a major exhibition organised by the Dallas Museum of Art with the generous collaboration of the Henry Moore Foundation.

LINKS

Henry Moore Foundation.

Wikipedia Article