Shadows on the Wall
Henry Spencer Moore (1898–1986) was one of the most influential British artists ofthe twentieth century. This catalogue considers Moore’s celebrated Shelter drawingsas the point of departure for a new reading of the artist’s fascination with imagesof walls, during and immediately after World War II. It accompanies a focusedexhibition at the Courtauld Gallery.After the destruction of his London studio early in World War II, Henry Moore begandrawing figures sheltering from bomb raids in the London Underground. This catalogueand exhibition consider Moore’s celebrated series as the point of departure for a newreading of the artist’s fascination with images of walls, during and immediately afterWorld War II.In the London Underground, where Moore drew these figures, the walls of thesesheltered spaces came to absorb his attention in an altogether new way, becomingscene-setters, and key components of his drawings. This fascination with the bricks andthe presence of walls, their texture, mass and volume, became especially important afterhis project to illustrate the wartime radio play The Rescue, based on Homer’s Odyssey.Henry Moore: Shadows on the Wall, a collaboration with the Henry MooreFoundation, suggests for the first time that the walls in his drawings offer a new way tounderstand some of his most individual and monumental Post-War sculpture projects.
