DOI Artikel:
Garlake, Margaret: Henry Moore as Cold Warrior
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49352#0351
337
MARGARET GARLAKE
Courtauld Institute, London
Henry Moore as Cold Warrior
In 1949 J. D. Aylward, writing in Apollo, asked rhetorically of Moore „Why this one
sculptor and no other?... The sending forth of this new army of Figures Draped,
Reclining, Standing, melting and what-have-you to the Capital cities of Europę (...)
poses the problem anew. Why?”* 1 The ąuestion was pertinent sińce Moore’s work,
exhibited from Paris to Auckland, Ljubljana to Toronto, received an exposure unlike that
of any other British artist in the early post-war years. Moore was feted and praised; his
work was the butt of jokes, a source of revulsion and mystification; it was commissioned
and bought for museums, art galleries and public spaces with an enthusiasm and freąuency
that raises ąuestions not only about the work itself and the ways in which it was understood
but also about the mechanisms through which it and the artisfs reputation were established
and disseminated.
Whereas Herbert Read’s critical analysis and support had been the foundation of Moore’s
pre-war avant-garde status, his emergence as an international art celebrity in the late 1940s
was greatly assisted by his relationship with the British CounciTs Fine Art Department.
This was directed by Lilian Somerville, among whose team of advisors Read was a
prominent figurę. The number of exhibitions of Moore’s work originated and toured by
the Council indicates the unusual closeness of the partnership, which largely replaced the
morę conventional artist-dealer relationship.2 Moore acknowledged that „the British
Council did morę for me as an artist than any dealer”.3
Their collaboration began in 1943 when the Council arranged transport to New York
for his drawings, which were to be shown at Curt Valentin’s Buchholz Gallery.4 The
retrospective which J. J. Sweeney arranged at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in
1946 initiated Moore’s international reputation.5 The exhibition later travelled to
* This article is a slightly expanded version of a paper given a the AAH conference in 1997. I am most grateful to the
director and Staff of the Henry Moore Foundation for giving me access to the archive.
Abbreviations appearing in the footnotes as follows: BC: British Council; LH: Lund Humphries; HMF: Henry Moore
Foundation; PRO: Public Record Office.
1 D. AYLWARD, „Shafts from Apollo’s bow. 34. A little Moore and how much it is!”, Apollo, 50, November 1949, p. 31.
2 When invited to exhibit by Dr Riidlinger, Director of the Kunsthalle, Berne, Moore passed the letter to Somerville
commenting „it is for you to decide” (13 January 1949, PRO BW 58/7).
3 R. BERTHOUD, The Life of Henry Moore, London, 1987, p. 214.
4 See also H. J. SELDIS, Henry Moore in America, London & Los Angeles, 1973, p. 31.
5 J.J.SWEENEY, Henry Moore, exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1946, p. 77.
MARGARET GARLAKE
Courtauld Institute, London
Henry Moore as Cold Warrior
In 1949 J. D. Aylward, writing in Apollo, asked rhetorically of Moore „Why this one
sculptor and no other?... The sending forth of this new army of Figures Draped,
Reclining, Standing, melting and what-have-you to the Capital cities of Europę (...)
poses the problem anew. Why?”* 1 The ąuestion was pertinent sińce Moore’s work,
exhibited from Paris to Auckland, Ljubljana to Toronto, received an exposure unlike that
of any other British artist in the early post-war years. Moore was feted and praised; his
work was the butt of jokes, a source of revulsion and mystification; it was commissioned
and bought for museums, art galleries and public spaces with an enthusiasm and freąuency
that raises ąuestions not only about the work itself and the ways in which it was understood
but also about the mechanisms through which it and the artisfs reputation were established
and disseminated.
Whereas Herbert Read’s critical analysis and support had been the foundation of Moore’s
pre-war avant-garde status, his emergence as an international art celebrity in the late 1940s
was greatly assisted by his relationship with the British CounciTs Fine Art Department.
This was directed by Lilian Somerville, among whose team of advisors Read was a
prominent figurę. The number of exhibitions of Moore’s work originated and toured by
the Council indicates the unusual closeness of the partnership, which largely replaced the
morę conventional artist-dealer relationship.2 Moore acknowledged that „the British
Council did morę for me as an artist than any dealer”.3
Their collaboration began in 1943 when the Council arranged transport to New York
for his drawings, which were to be shown at Curt Valentin’s Buchholz Gallery.4 The
retrospective which J. J. Sweeney arranged at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in
1946 initiated Moore’s international reputation.5 The exhibition later travelled to
* This article is a slightly expanded version of a paper given a the AAH conference in 1997. I am most grateful to the
director and Staff of the Henry Moore Foundation for giving me access to the archive.
Abbreviations appearing in the footnotes as follows: BC: British Council; LH: Lund Humphries; HMF: Henry Moore
Foundation; PRO: Public Record Office.
1 D. AYLWARD, „Shafts from Apollo’s bow. 34. A little Moore and how much it is!”, Apollo, 50, November 1949, p. 31.
2 When invited to exhibit by Dr Riidlinger, Director of the Kunsthalle, Berne, Moore passed the letter to Somerville
commenting „it is for you to decide” (13 January 1949, PRO BW 58/7).
3 R. BERTHOUD, The Life of Henry Moore, London, 1987, p. 214.
4 See also H. J. SELDIS, Henry Moore in America, London & Los Angeles, 1973, p. 31.
5 J.J.SWEENEY, Henry Moore, exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1946, p. 77.