RECUMBENT FIGURE (final)

Question 1

DATE

Answer 1

1938

Question 2

Artist

Answer 2

henry moore

Question 3

artist training

Answer 3

-trained at Leeds school of art

• trained at the royal college of art

Question 4

What did he learn at the royal college of art

Answer 4

ACADEMIC SCUPTURAL TECHNIQUES
- was taught academic sculptural traditions and naturalism, which he used in his early work
-explains reference to reclining nude

NON WESTERN TRADITIONS
-studied non western art under the royal college of art
-Visted british museum (made sketches of primitive collections: African, Oceanic, Mexican/ aztec art)

Question 5

artist attiude towards mechanisation

Answer 5

-fought in ww1, thought mechanical development and war was corrupt

-wanted to return to ‘authentic origins’ (primitive connection to nature), through sculpture

Question 6

KEY INFLUENCES

Answer 6

PRIMITIVISM

ROGER FRY

SURREALISM

ABSTRACTION

Question 7

how was moore influenced by primitivism

Answer 7

-roger fry’s 1920 book called vision and design promoted the aesthetic value of primitive sculpture

-studied non western art at the royal college of art: made sketched from british museum

-pose recalls aztec sculpture (reclining figures in mayan chacamool sculpture)

-Aztec sculpture influenced direct carving

Question 8

influence of mayan chacamool sculptures

Answer 8

-influence of aztec plaster casts he saw in paris

-influenced his decision for direct carving

Question 9

pose description (and influence)

Answer 9

-reclining on elbows, kees bent

-head sharply turned to viewer

-relaxed pose

INFLUENCE
-odalisque tradition of reclining nude in western art
-influence of aztec plaster casts (pose of maya chacamool sculptures)

Question 10

How is form treated

Answer 10

-horizontal emphasis, only head projects above the upper line]

-abstracted, not naturalistic: however there are some recognisable features of the human body (head, knees, breast, buttocks)

-Rounded organic form: creates rhythmic contours that evoke hills (roundess shows biomorphic connectivity to nature)

-roundness of arms and legs

-voids created through drilling, further abstracts

Question 11

influence of surrealism

Answer 11

BIOMORPHISISM
-biomorphic forms evoked through human form (caves, hills, bones)

OBJECT TROUVE
-respects integrity of lack: link to using found objects like pebbles

SURREALIST DOUBLE IMAGES
-influence of picasso
-body evokes natural forms of contours of hills through curvilinear roundness

Question 12

Influence of abstraction

Answer 12

Fusion of human body and landscape

Question 13

influence of roger fry

Answer 13

-1920 book (vision and design) details the aesthetic value of african art

Question 14

how and why does he use direct carving

Answer 14

WHY
-immediate connection to nature- rejects growing mechanised approach to sculpture
-aztec sculpture directly carved

HOW
-not pure direct carving: made drawings and a lead manquette

-Retains memory of the block

-exposes and uses the natural qualities of the stone

Question 15

how are the qualities if the stone reflected

Answer 15

-low lying, horizontal, stable composition- reveals low tensile strength and weight of stone (creates and element of permenance)

-Natural colour and grain of stone visable

-no visable tool marks, smoothed but not polished- enhanced natural imagrey

-hard quality of stone enables drilling to achieve voids

Question 16

CRITICAL QUOTE

Answer 16

moore attracted to aztec sculpture
because of its “stoniness – by which I mean its truth to materials.”

Question 17

MATERIAL

Answer 17

green hornton stone

Question 18

patron

Answer 18

was commissioned by Modernist Russian architect Serge Chermayeff
for the house he designed: Bentley Wood in Sussex.

Question 19

WHERE DID MOORE COMPLETE THIS

Answer 19

in his home in Kent, in garden