March 27 - May 29, 2010
Zürich
Hauser & Wirth is delighted to present an extraordinary body of works curated directly with members of the Moore family. 'Works on Paper from the Henry Moore Family Collection' is the gallery's second presentation of works by Henry Moore, following our 2008 exhibition 'Ideas for Sculpture' held at Hauser & Wirth London. The exhibition includes works ranging from Moore's sensitive and sublime studies of the human body to his wartime 'Shelter Drawings' and exploratory 'Ideas for Sculpture', spanning six decades of the artist's career. 'Works on Paper from the Henry Moore Family Collection' provides a rare opportunity to see a group of works that beautifully presents the significance of Moore's drawings in his oeuvre, as well as capturing Moore's skill as an impeccable draughtsman.
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The human figure, enigmatically isolated or in relationship with others, is both the stimulus and the crux of all Henry Moore’s works. For him, creating his sculptures was not so much an abstract exercize in looking at the human figure, but a personal investigation and violation of the artist’s own body: ‘When I carve into the chest,’ he commented, ‘I feel as if I were carving into my own.’ In 1943, Moore was commissioned to carve a Madonna and Child for the Church of St. Matthew, Northampton; this sculpture was the first in an important series of family-group sculptures. Moore's large-sized abstract sculptures can be encountered in numerous international public places (like Reclining Figure, 1956–58, UNESCO, Paris). Overlooked sometimes, are his fascinating drawings, often inspired by poetry and mythology. For his works on paper, Moore received important stimuli from so-called primitive art from Africa, the South Seas and Egypt, but at the same time from contemporaries such as Picasso and Giacometti. Hovering between abstraction and figuration, Moore developed his own unique language of form.
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