Day 1175 – Moore in the Gardens

Oval With PointsWho doesn’t enjoy Henry Moore? Two Large FormsSeriously, can anybody actually say “i hate that guy, his work is awful.” Sure, you might not “get” his work (i’m not saying that i ‘get’ it either) but i never miss a chance to see his work, especially is large bronzes, when presented. I love big art. I am drawn to art you can walk through; art you can be part of. I’m also a huge fan of contrasts: sharp edges and smooth edges, tall and thin, short and fat, negative and positive, rough and smooth, heavy and light, and, of course, balance. Mr. Moore’s work exemplifies all those qualities and has the added bonus, in the case of the garden show, of being mostly big.

Mother and ChildOne of the smaller pieces is from his famous “mother and child” series. While i’m not the biggest fan of this series i can deeply appreciate the overwhelming sense of love he poured into this work. Like Harry Callahan’s extensive series of his wife Eleanor where she, literally, becomes part of everything in his world, Moore, through ingenious simplification of form, shows us how one being becomes two, but remain joined for at least a while.

Detail of Two Large FormsThe garden show covers a pretty good sampling of Moore’s work albeit kind in a “flash card” manner. There’s one large fiberglass piece which was emblematic of his later work, one fully abstract piece, one piece from the “totem” series and a couple from his organic “forms” series. Of these my favorite is “Two Large Forms.” It is simply magnificent on all levels: it is massive yet at the same time light as two intertwining soap bubbles. My only complaint is that there is now a rope surrounding the piece to prevent kids from climbing on it. Moore wrote that he had no problems with children climbing on certain of his pieces and that physical interaction was how children experienced the world. The rope line surrounding the piece becomes part of the sculpture and insults the piece’s inviting simplicity. I don’t think Moore would have approved.

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