Henry Moore S Sheep Sketchbook

In February 1972 Henry Moores sculpture studios in the English countryside at Much Hadham were filled with the preparations for his retrospective exhibition in Florence. In search of peace and quiet, he went into a smaller room overlooking the fields where a local farmer grazed his sheep. The sheep came very close to the window, attracting his attention, and he began to draw them. Initially he saw them as nothing more than four-legged balls of wool, but his vision changed as he explored what they were really like the way they moved, the shape of their bodies under the fleece. They also developed strong human and biblical associations, and the sight of a ewe with her lamb evoked the mother-and-child theme a large form sheltering a small one which has been important to Henry Moore in all his work. He drew the sheep again that summer after they were shorn, when he could see the shapes of the bodies which had been covered by wool. Solid in form, sudden and vigorous in movement, Henry Moores sheep are created through a network of swirling and zigzagging lines in the rapid (and in Moores hands) sensitive medium of ballpoint pen. The effect is both familiar and monumental; as Lord Clark comments, We expect Henry Moore to give a certain nobility to everything he draws; but more surprising is the way in which these drawings express a feeling of real affection for their subject.

This stunning collection of portraits shows sheep as you’ve never seen them before. Featuring commissioned studio photography of champion breeds styled to perfection prior to competition, the animals showcased here are works of ovine art. Beautiful color portraits of 42 different breeds from around the globe are accompanied by graphic charts containing all the essential breed information. There’s also a potted history of sheep, plus reportage photography of the behind-the-scenes primping and preening at the agricultural shows, to document the care lavished on prizewinning sheep as well as the nail-biting judging process. Whether you regard it as a photographic exposition, an amusing objet d’art, or a shepherd’s delight packed with visual and texual breed information, this is a unique giftbook destined to adorn coffee tables around the globe.

Accompanies the exhibition co-organized by the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, shown June 5-September 13, 2020, the Hepworth, Wakefield, shown February 7-May 3, 2020, and the Sainsbury Center, University of East Anglia, shown November 22, 2020-February 28, 2021.

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Henry Moore's birth, this book features the most important and comprehensive single group of Moore's Drawings, graphics, and sculpture. More than 300 of Moore's acclaimed works are reproduced, along with fresh insights and personal anecdotes by colleagues. 290 color illustrations.

Henry Moore's rise from Yorkshire miner's son to international acclaim as the twentieth century's greatest sculptor is one of the most remarkable stories in British art. In this revised, updated, expanded and redesigned new edition of The Life of Henry Moore, Roger Berthoud charts Moore's transition from controversial young modernist to pillar of the art-world establishment, garlanded with domestic and foreign honours. His account is enriched by the weekly interviews he did with Moore -- and his wife Irina -- before the sculptor's death in 1986, aged eighty-eight. At home and abroad Moore's sculptures aroused strong passions and were often the object of abuse, sharp criticism and even physical assault, as well as of admiration. He was attacked by younger artists, among others, who saw his growing fame as an obstacle to their advancement. He was to survive the ebb and flow in his reputation, and emerge with the status of a contemporary old master. From a mass of material, including recently discovered early letters, and interviews with Moore's friends, his former assistants and students, dealers, collectors, museum officials and leading architects with whom he worked, Roger Berthoud has built up a lively and engaging though not uncritical picture of Moore's long life and career in this definitive biography. Book jacket.