Press

Henry Moore at Perry Green Visitor Season 3 April - 28 October 2012

The Top Studio at Perry Green is a few paces from Henry Moore's Hertfordshire home, and is where the artist made his most important mid-career sculptures.  These include iconic works such as Family Group 1948­­-49, Warrior with Shield 1953-54, and King and Queen 1952-53. 

For 2012, Head of Collections and Exhibitions Anita Feldman and Sculpture Conservator James Copper have brought together sculpture, tools, pedestals and materials in the Top Studio in a reinstallation, capturing its spirit during the 1950s. All the contents are original and have been reinstated according to research made possible through the Foundation's extensive photographic archive.

Major works on display include the plasters for Warrior with Shield and Internal/External Form. Rarely seen sculptural variations of Family Group include the plaster Seated Man and bronze Mother and Child made the following year in 1949. On Moore's workbench are the two remaining 1945 clay slip maquettes for the standing figures in Battersea Park.

The shelves display a trial for Moore's lead Helmet Head No.1 1950, a fragile 14cm plasticine and wire variation of one of the rocking chair series, and the plaster maquettes for the Time/Life Screen in Portland stone which was carved on scaffolding outside the studio before being positioned high above shoppers in London's Bond Street.

www.henry-moore.org

TOP STUDIO: NOTES

Moore began working in the studio in 1940, having moved to Perry Green with his wife Irina after their studio-flat in Hampstead was damaged by bombing.  Familiar with the area through local friends, they were able to rent part of a timber-framed farmhouse known as Hoglands, which they purchased the following year.

With market garden land to the rear, sheds and a stable at the front of the property to serve as a studio, this was an ideal base for an artist, and still within striking distance of London life. Moore immediately set to work laying the floor of what was to become his most important studio by far.

None of Moore's studios were grand, and this space, now called the Top Studio, is typical of the improvised farm buildings that he favoured.  The Top Studio became a template of sorts, with newly installed roof lights replicating the conditions of his London studio. With the gradual acquisition of adjacent land, he was able to work on larger pieces in adapted studios further down the estate.

Moore frequently opened up the large double doors of the Top Studio to work in the open air, in specially-created outdoor carving areas.  He placed his larger sculptures on skids so they could be easily moved and introduced loading bays in front of each studio - important for a sculptor working on pieces up to monumental size.

Early in his career, Moore drew preliminary sketches on paper for his sculptures, but from 1935, he began making three dimensional maquettes in terracotta, wax or plaster. These studies were created in the Top Studio, stored in ranks along shelving that lined the walls.

In addition to sculpture, Moore used the studio for drawing and experimental photography, recording his own work in progress.  He did this latter not only for personal enjoyment - exploring a relatively new medium - but also because he took a keen interest in recording and presenting his own sculpture for the many catalogues, newspapers and broadcasts in which they featured.  This was part of his ongoing work teaching others about the medium.

The bronze Standing Figure No.4 1952, acquired by the Foundation last year, was photographed by Moore inside Reclining Figure: Internal/External Form 1951, the plaster model of which can be seen on the shelf against the original cladded wall.