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AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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Officials name senior vice president, chief of staff
By Fiona Riley, Assistant News Editor • March 26, 2024

New exhibit offers quick retrospective of artistry

A retrospective exhibit is like a conversation with the life of an artist.Walking through the galleries of the museum, you are able to see where they came from stylistically and how they develop and mature. This is the sensation one gets walking through the National Gallery of Art’s new sculpture exhibit by Henry Moore.

Moore began his craft with small figural sculptures, mostly women, with varying textures and materials. These sculptures are his earliest efforts and were completed roughly between 1920 and the early 1930s. The figures are abstracted and are almost cubist in their off-center body parts and facial figures. Looking at these early works calls to mind Picasso’s sculptures. But they have a more earthly texture than Picasso and have a certain roundness that is motherly in itself.

Moore’s later work became influenced by surrealism, and as the exhibit continues, the shapes of his sculptures are increasingly more abstract until all remnants of a figure is lost. One trend throughout these abstracted forms is the presence of holes. His interest here is the hollowing out of forms, which develops into an investigation of the internal qualities of form. His varied textures continue, and the materials express their natural qualities.

The rough side of a stone is left untouched and juxtaposed with a smooth surface – an effect revealed in Moore’s string sculptures. These small works use strings to connect one end of a sculpture to the other.

Mixed within the many sculptures are the drawings and studies done by Moore as a preparation for other work or just as an output of ideas. As the show moves through Moore’s career, sketches turn into full-scale compositions. His drawings are inspired by World War II, which had a heavy influence on his sculpture. Sculptures of helmets with twisted interior forms express a deep psychological disturbance spawned by the conflict. Moore, lived in England at the time of the war, and it had a powerful effect on his work. His “Portrait of a Family” represents the birth of his first child, but the emaciated figures clearly reference the ravages of war.

Moore’s later work becomes large in scale during his period of public – outdoor – sculpture. These are impressive not just in scale but in the way he incorporated his interest in internal form. The organic qualities of these sculptures allow for a certain kind of experience when looking at this kind of work. It is necessary to walk around the entire area, and to see it from all angles and points of view. This kind of sculpture is almost interactive, and creates an encounter with the object, not just a passive viewing.

What was the highlight of this journey through a sculptor’s life for this author was the display of rocks, tree branches, shells and other natural objects that Moore once had in his studio. Suddenly, all of his work is reflected in these natural forms, it was like the last pieces to the puzzle, fitting in the many aspects and attributes that had formed such an astounding body of work.

“Henry Moore” continues
through Jan. 27.

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