Henry Moore, A study of his life and work

by Herbert Read

A brief biography of Henry Moore followed by a description and analysis of his sculptures and drawings through 1966.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

284 pages, Paperback

First published November 29, 1965

About the author

Sir Herbert Edward Read, (December 4, 1893 - June 12, 1968) was an English art historian, poet, literary critic and philosopher, best known for numerous books on art, which included influential volumes on the role of art in education.

Politically, Read considered himself an anarchist, albeit in the English quietist tradition of Edward Carpenter and William Morris. Read was co-founder of the Institute of Contemporary Art & the publisher and editor-in-chief of Jung's collected works in English.

On 11 November 1985, Read was among 16 Great War poets commemorated on a slate stone unveiled in Westminster Abbey's Poet's Corner.

He was the father of the well-known writer Piers Paul Read, the BBC documentary maker John Read, the BBC producer and executive Tom Read, and the art historian Ben Read.

Reviews

[Eric Cartier · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these Praeger World of Art Profile books. I own and thoroughly enjoyed reading the volumes on Miro and Klee, and this study of Moore and his work is similarly enriching. Moore's artworks are strewn about the world - I've been lucky to spend time contemplating them at the Hirshhorn in DC, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena - so I wanted to see more of them and learn how they came to be. The photographs of the sculptures are particularly excellent, and Read tells us Moore took most of them himself, as he was the best photographer of his own work. The narrative surrounding the artist's development over the decades is intriguing, too. Perhaps the only drawbacks to this volume are that Moore was still a working artist when it was published, and that the author and Moore were lifelong friends, so Read's critical interpretations weren't entirely disinterested. Regardless, it's worth seeking out if Moore's figures are alluring to you.

I know that books in the Praeger World of Art series are still out there, turning up at library book sales, so I hope to get my hands on the Munch volume someday soon.

[Mina Nenadovic · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books on artists. Written with much love and understanding, really captures a great big period of his sculpture work and life.