Yorkshire Sculpture Park TEACHERS’ RESOURCE PACK Henry Moore: Back to a Land 7 MARCH–6 SEPTEMBER 2015 EXHIBITION LOCATIONS The exhibition takes place in the Underground Gallery and in the open air (Formal Terrace, Country Park and Bothy Garden). The What’s On Today & Map leaflet can be used with this resource. Our Family Activities leaflet also has lots of creative ideas relating to the exhibition and can be picked up at the Information Desk or downloaded from the website. A more extensive resource pack is available in the Resource area in YSP Centre. ABOUT THE ARTIST Henry Moore was born in Castleford in 1898 and became one of the most important British sculptors of the 20th century. His upbringing in Yorkshire and the local landscape had a huge influence on his work. Moore was a founding patron of Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP), first visiting the Park in 1979. Moore was a sculptor who carved in stone and marble and also created large bronze sculptures. He enjoyed working outdoors and made sculpture for the open air. Moore’s main subject was the figure, particularly the ‘reclining figure’ and ‘mother and child’. He used abstract form to connect the human body with nature and the landscape, and his sculptures are reminiscent of rock formations, bone and other natural forms. Moore married Irina Radetsky in 1929 and had a daughter, Mary, in 1946. By the late 1940s, Moore was a hugely successful artist and undertook major commissions around the world. He died in 1986 but his work remains incredibly popular and continues to influence new generations of artists. A more extensive biography of Henry Moore can be found at the end of this resource. For further research visit: henry-moore.org ysp.co.uk/henrymoore 1964–65 Perry Green. Green. 1964–65 Perry Three Way Piece No.1: Points, Points, Piece No.1: Way Three 1969 bronze Henry Moore with Henry Moore Photo Budd Weintraub; The Henry Moore Foundation archive. archive. Foundation The Henry Moore Budd Weintraub; Photo Forms, Two Large ABOUT THE EXHIBITION ‘Sculpture is an art of the open air. Daylight, sunlight, is necessary to it, and for me its best setting and complement is nature.’ Henry Moore 1 Henry Moore: Back to a Land sheds new light on the importance of the land as a source of inspiration for Moore and his curiosity with what lies beneath – from the coalfields and geology of Britain to bones and skeletal structures. The exhibition explores the artist’s radical notion of placing his sculpture in the landscape and the importance of the earth in his creative thinking. The title, Henry Moore: Back to a Land, refers to Jacquetta Hawkes’ book A Land, published in 1951. Illustrated by Moore, A Land was a defining British book of the post-war decade, evoking an image and history of Britain ‘where nature, man and art appear all in one piece.’ 2 In the exhibition, Moore’s monumental bronze sculptures can be seen outdoors. It was always Moore’s wish to see his work in the natural landscape, amongst sheep and against dramatic backdrops of the changing skies and weather. His sculptures appear as monuments in the landscape, reminiscent of prehistoric structures or rock formations. A series of lithographs of Stonehenge feature in the exhibition. Stonehenge connects man with land and the monumentality of these sructures is suggestive of sculptural form. The land beneath is a subject of his drawings of coal miners, seen emerging from the coal seams, and were produced when Moore visited Wheldale Colliery, Castleford, during the war. A small selection of Moore’s famous Shelter drawings, created in the same period, depict anonymous people sheltering in the London Underground during the Blitz. Moore’s interest in a subterranean world – of man’s relationship with the earth and of the human form – are brought together in these drawings. Moore studied nature and was fascinated by the structures and forms within it, from bones to pebbles, gnarled roots, clouds, shells and chrysalises. Some of his observational drawings are on display and connections can be made between these and his larger sculptures. Mary Moore, the artist’s daughter, has curated the final room in the Underground Gallery. This contains never before seen personal artefacts, including sketches, notes, photographs and tools which give a unique insight into Moore’s working process. ‘Objet Trouvé’ (found objects), historical artefacts from world cultures and natural forms collected by Moore reveal something of the ‘artist’s eye’ – how Moore saw the world. The exhibition is organised by Richard Calvocoressi, Director of the Henry Moore Foundation; Peter Murray, Executive Director of YSP and Dr Helen Pheby, YSP Senior Curator; and is supported by the Henry Moore Foundation. Upright Motive No.7; Upright Motive No.1: Glenkiln Cross; Upright Motive No.2, 1955-56 bronze. Courtesy Tate BEFORE YOUR VISIT Henry Moore’s father worked in a coal mine and was determined that his sons should never have to. Find out about the working conditions for coal miners in the early part of twentieth century. ncm.org.uk/ discoveryuk.com/web/coal/Photos/uk-history-of-coal-mining/ screenonline.org.uk/history/id/1198219/ ‘ I remember a huge natural outcrop at a place (Adel) near Leeds which as a young boy impressed me tremendously – it had a powerful stone, something like Stonehenge has – and also the slag heaps of the Yorkshire mining villages, the slag heaps which for me as a boy, as a young child, were like mountains. They had the scale of the pyramids; they had this triangular, bare, stark quality that was just as though one were in the Alps.’ Henry Moore 3 • Find out about Stonehenge. Why do you think it was created? How was it made? Are there other similar structures in Britain and the world? Ask children to come to their own conclusions on what Stonehenge was for. • Ask children to talk to parents or carers about places that impressed them when they were children. ‘There was a great contrast between the weekdays when you would play in the streets and the weekends when the countryside was what mattered.’ Henry Moore 4 Ask children to talk about... • What they like to do at the weekends? • Have they ever been somewhere completely different to where they live? • Is there a place which is special for them? Go for a nature walk – collect natural objects, look at the shape of clouds, trees, twigs and rocks. Look at artists who were working at the same time as Henry Moore: Paul Nash, Graham Sutherland, Naum Gabo, Barbara Hepworth, Pablo Picasso, Constantin Brancusi, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Jacob Epstein. Think about the similarities and differences with Moore. 1984 fiberglass. 1984 fiberglass. Large Reclining Figure, Reclining Large EXPLORE & CREATE Suggestions for activities, discussion points for groups visiting YSP and activities to do back at school. THEME ONE: THE FIGURE AND THE LAND In Gallery One, Formal Terrace and Country Park ‘It is this mixture of figure and landscape. It’s what I try in my sculpture. It’s a metaphor for the human relationship with the earth, with mountains and landscape.’ Henry Moore 5 Henry Moore developed an abstract sculptural language that combined representations of the human figure with references to natural forms, such as shells, pebbles, bones and rock formations. Moore focused on the female figure, as well as on subjects such as ‘mother and child’, the reclining figure and the head. His sculptural figures are sometimes reminiscent of an ancient monument; weathered, aged and timeless. Moore’s sculptures of reclining figures may suggest hills, hollows, arches or caves. The organic shapes undulate like rolling hills and dales, or are jagged and gouged, like sharp-edged rock faces. Sometimes the figures are made up of two or three elements, or are pierced so we can see the landscape through the holes and sections. Representing the figure in two or three parts means we don’t expect it to be ‘realistic’, instead it can be something else – a rock, a landscape. It has multiple views, rather than just a front or a back, and as we move around the sculpture, the spaces and parts overlap, open up and create a changing view of the landscape or setting in which it is placed, as well as of the figure itself. At Yorkshire Sculpture Park Look at Moore’s sculptures of the human figure. • Move around the sculptures of reclining figures. Imagine the sculptures were rocks or landscape and you were a tiny figure standing beneath. How would it feel to be there? What would the weather be like? Imagine climbing and exploring this special place. • What position is the figure in? Try and get in the same position. How does it feel? How would you move? • Is the sculpture in two or more parts? Does it still look like a figure? Draw the outline of the sculpture from different viewpoints. Don’t worry if they overlap. How do the shapes change? • Find a figure sculpture that particularly interests you. Who do you think they are? Create a personality for them. What would they tell you? Close your eyes and listen. What can your sculpture hear? Activities back at school Transform your drawings of the sculptures into imaginary painted landscape scenes. Are the shoulders a cliff top? The feet a rocky premonitory? How could your landscape be a setting for a story? Get into the position of one of the sculptures seen on your visit. Take it in turns to draw your group’s ‘living sculpture’. Imagine you have jumped inside a sculpture. Write a story based on what you hear and see in the gallery.