Henry Moore's Animals Prints from the Permanent Collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario by Alan G. Wilkinson
4to. pp. 24. 17 illustrations. wrappers, front cover has deckled edge (ink smudge to lower margin of title page, otherwise as new). Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1990.
Exhibition Catalogue.
ISBN-10: 0919777813 / ISBN-13: 9780919777811
For more than sixty years of his creative life, Moore`s art reflected his obsession with two dominant themes - the reclining figure and the mother and child - there were also periods when certain new and uncharacteristic subjects suddenly and unexpectedly gripped his imagination. Among the first diversions from the major focus of his work were the profoundly moving shelter drawings of 1940-41 depicting scenes of civilians sheltering from the Blitz on the platforms of London`s Underground stations.
This exhibition comprises three portfolios of prints, each devoted to a specific theme: Elephant Skull Album 1969-70, Sheep Album, made in 1972 and 1974, and Animals in the Zoo, 1981-82. Between 1921 and 1982 Moore made some fifty-eight sculptures of animals-domestic, wild and imaginary creations. As he wrote: "I can see a lot of connections between animals and human beings...there can be a virility, a dignity or there can be tenderness, vulnerability. I can see animals in anything, really."