Henry Moore
Tate Britain
24th Feb- 8th August ‘10.
There are a lot of conflicting views being thrown around at the moment regarding the current ‘Henry Moore’ exhibition at the Tate Britain. I don’t feel I truly know enough to put forward a particularly strong opinion, but as far as I understand its aim is to alter, or rather urge us to re- explore our view of Moores work that seems to have merged into the background of British culture today. The Tate is attempting to do this by bringing together pieces that suggest a darker and more erotically charged sense, urging us to look at them in a new light. Firstly, it is already a well- known fact that Moore was an official war artist and secondly critics, including David Sylvester have suggested before that some of his work insinuated sexual resonances, so this isn’t really anything profoundly new. I also wasn’t aware that back in the thirties the former director of the Tate, J.B Manson ‘announced that as long as he was at the helm no work by Moore would enter the gallery’, due to its early radical nature, so yes… I’m not really sure myself. All the articles I’ve read so far seem to be a bit desperate to provoke. I don’t know if its going to change my view or opinion that much from what I’ve seen, however I haven’t seen it yet so I guess I can’t really talk.
For more Info see:
entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article7036525
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/henrymoore/default.shtm
LMD 