1973 - 1986
Moore working on a maquette 1981
1974 Henry Moore Sculpture Centre opened at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.
1976 Exhibition of war drawings at the Imperial War Museum, London.
1977 Inauguration of the Henry Moore Foundation at Much Hadham.
1978 Eightieth birthday exhibitions at the Tate Gallery, the Serpentine Gallery, London, Bradford.
1982 The Henry Moore Sculpture Gallery and Centre for the Study of Sculpture opened by HM The Queen.
1983 Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
1984 President Mitterand visited Moore in Much Hadham.
1986 Died at Perry Green, Hertfordshire on 31 August.
Bird Form I 1973
LH 623
black serpentine
length 36.8cm
unsigned
Gift of the artist 1977
photo: Michael Phipps
Sheep Piece 1971-72
LH 627
bronze edition of 3 + 1
cast: Morris Singer, Basingstoke
height 570cm
signature: stamped Moore, 0/3
Gift of the artist 1977
photo: Michel Muller
Large Four Piece Reclining Figure 1972-73
LH 629
bronze edition of 7 + 1
cast: Hermann Noack, Berlin
length 402cm
signature: stamped Moore, 0/7
Acquired 1987
photo: Henry Moore Foundation archive
The reclining figure has been the most enduring of Moore’s themes, whether it be realistic and draped in a single piece or, more expressively, divided and identified with landscape. The mind is left free to fill in the shapes between each segment. The ’Large Four Piece Reclining Figure’ is one of Moore’s most abstract inventions and almost surrealistic in its effects. There is a wonderful tension between the tangible and the intangible. Moore never committed himself to the sectarian factions and arguments that disturbed the progress of the Modern Movement. His awareness of the whole range of effective sculptural statements was an innate and constant factor in his mind. His purpose was to invent and experiment as his imagination suggested (John Read 1998).
Hill Arches 1973
LH 636
bronze edition of 3 + 1
cast: Hermann Noack, Berlin
length 550cm
signature: stamped Moore, 0/3
Gift of the artist 1977
photo: Henry Moore Foundation archive
The 1970s was a decade dominated by large bronze pieces. Works such as Sheep Piece (1971-72) and The Arch (1979-80) are important examples of Moore's use of this material on a monumental scale. The majority were cast at either the Hermann Noack foundry in Berlin or the Morris Singer Foundry in Basingstoke. Moore's relationship with these two firms enabled him to expand his vision for many sculptural ideas, which had initially been created in the form of small 'maquettes'. These were tiny plaster or clay models made as a type of three-dimensional sketch. Through these he was then able to envisage the size and scale of the sculpture that he wished to be enlarged and cast in bronze.
Reclining Mother and Child 1975-76
LH 649
bronze edition of 7 + 1
cast: Hermann Noack, Berlin
length 2l3cm
signature: stamped Moore, 0/7
Acquired 1986
photo: Anita Feldman
Large Figure in a Shelter 1985-86
LH 652c
bronze edition of 1 + 1
cast: Morris Singer, Basingstoke
height 762cm
signature: stamped Moore, 0/1
Acquired 1987
photo: Anita Feldman
Head of Wystan Auden 1973
HMF 73(13)
brush and ink, chinagraph on coated transfer paper
162 x 140mm
signature: unsigned, undated
The Henry Moore Foundation: gift of the artist 1977
photo: Henry Moore Foundation archive
Draped Reclining Figure: Sea Background 1977
HMF 77(16)
carbon line, charcoal (rubbed), gouache, chinagraph on white heavyweight wove
166 x 251mm
signature: ballpoint pen l.l. Moore, undated
The Henry Moore Foundation: acquired 1987
photo: Henry Moore Foundation archive
Three Ideas for Sculpture 1981
HMF 81(239)
chinagraph, wax crayon, pastel, chalk, wash, gouache on T.H. Saunders watercolour wove
423 x 293mm
signature: chinagraph l.l. Moore, undated
The Henry Moore Foundation: acquired 1987
photo: Henry Moore Foundation archive
In his last years Henry Moore was fêted by public and politicians alike. The German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and later the French President François Mitterrand flew to Hoglands by helicopter to present him with honours. While the world was honouring him, Moore was all the time giving back. A gift of over two hundred sculptures and drawings and a complete collection of graphics were made to the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1974. Over thirty major pieces and another collection of graphics went to the Tate Gallery, London in 1978. Other gifts have included drawings to the British Museum and graphic work to the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Council in London.
The Henry Moore Foundation was registered as a company in April 1976 and as a charity under English law in June the same year. It became operational in January 1977. It was originally envisaged as a family trust, with Irina and Mary as its Trustees.
Then came the retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum in New York during 1983, the large survey exhibitions in Hong Kong and Japan in 1986 and in 1987 the first major posthumous exhibition at the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi.
A few years before his death Moore gave the whole estate of Perry Green with its land, studios, houses, cottages, archives and collection of work to the Trustees of the Henry Moore Foundation, the aims of which were to conserve the work and reputation of the artist and the setting in which the work was created, and to assist the arts in general and in particular to promote sculpture within the cultural life of the country. In 1980 Moore also laid the foundation stone for the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, which is endowed by the Henry Moore Foundation.
Henry Moore died at the age of eighty-eight on the 31st of August 1986 and the press, which had been so hard on him in his early years as a sculptor, now praised his great achievements. Since the death of Sir Winston Churchill, Henry Moore has been the most internationally acclaimed of Englishmen, honoured by every civilized country in the world, declared the Daily Telegraph (31 August 1986).
As always, others were less enthusiastic, seeing Moore as a social climber (while conveniently forgetting that he turned down a knighthood in the 1950s) and as a puppet of the establishment. However, in the end it is his work that counts and in the history of twentieth-century art Moore's output counts for a great deal. It is represented in almost every important public and private collection, and his sculptures have been placed in more public places throughout the world than any other sculptor in history.