HENRY MOORE 1898-1986

Henry Moore is an English sculptor formed at Leed's School of Arts and later at London's Royal College of Art where he gained a scholarship to travel to France and Italy. Back in England in 1926, he started producing sculptures. Imbued by the arts he had seen in England, France and Italy, Henry Moore left the tradition of the revival of the antique aside and turned toward primitive arts as the source of his work: pre-Columbian, African, Egyptian or even Etruscan. His first sculptures show these influences. With these arts as inspiration, it has been considered that Henry Moore played an important role in the modernity of English sculpture. His sculptures of human silhouettes have kept throughout his career these specific influences while tending progressively toward abstraction.
Apart from his artistic career, Henry Moore taught at the Royal College of Art as well as at the Chelsea School of Art. His artworks have gained success and he received public and private commissions. Furthermore, he was exhibited in many galleries in London such as Leicester Gallery or Warren Gallery as well as in museums such as New York's MoMA in 1946 or London's Tate Gallery in 1968. Throughout his career he was awarded many prizes such as the Sculpture prize at the 1948 Venice Biennale and was made knight of the legion of honour in 1984 by François Mitterand.