Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA (1898-1986) - Abstract, biomorphic, humanist sculptor.

Artist Henry Moore – A sculptor born in Castleford, West Yorkshire, the son of a coal mining engineer. Moore served in the Prince of Wales’ Own Civil Service Rifles in World War I, being injured in a gas attack during the battle of Cambrai, France. Later Moore studied at Leeds School of Art, 1919-21 and Royal College of Art and for a short time at Leon Underwood's Brook Green School.

About this time Moore began visiting the British Museum and became interested in non-European cultures. As an artist Henry Moore began direct carving and helped to sustain this discipline instigated earlier by Jacob Epstein. In 1928 he held his first solo exhibition at the Warren Gallery, London and in 1930 Moore became a member of the Seven and Five Society.

In 1929 Henry Moore married a painting student from The Royal College of Art named Irina Radetsky. In 1932, after six years teaching at the Royal College, Moore took up a post as the Head of the Department of Sculpture at the Chelsea School of Art.

In 1930 Henry Moore along with fellow artists Jacob Epstein and John Skeaping were invited to represent British sculpture at the XVIII Venice Biennale. In 1933 he helped Paul Nash form the avant-garde group, Unit One and then lived in a Hampstead studio, next door to Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson.

Moore was a participant in the seminal 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition and although he experimented with abstract and biomorphic art during the mid-1930's, his abiding concern was always with the human figure.

During World War II he reached a wider audience with his 'Shelter' drawings, and in 1943 executed a Madonna and Child for St. Matthew's Church, Northampton. After the war in 1948, he won the International Prize for sculpture at the Venice Biennale. From then on, artist Henry Moore maintained his international stature as an artist, and he executed a significant number of public commissions including a huge bronze Reclining Figure for the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

In 1951 he was awarded the Order of Merit and two years later was made a Companion of Honour. Now a world-famous artist, Henry Moore held numerous exhibitions at home and abroad, including two retrospectives at the Tate Gallery, 1951 and 1968.

In 1977 Henry Moore and his family founded The Henry Moore Foundation to encourage public appreciation of the visual arts. The institute is based in Leeds and his studio & gardens in Much Hadham, Hertfordshire.