Artist:
Henry Moore
Title:
Large Totem Head
Year:
1968
Adress:
Karolinenstrasse
something figurative, almost abstract
This artwork is almost completely abstract. We see a form with a bulge in the middle. On one side there is a opening with two circles bisected by a vertical form.
I want to base my essays on whatever I see, but not on what I do know (like the title). With Large Totem Head by Henry Moore I have been sneaky and was helped by the title. Oh yeah, now I can see a face: two eyes, a nose and perhaps long hair surrounding the face.
I found it a pitty that the face has a sad look. The opening is relatively small so the artwork makes a closed impression. I found Large Totem Head by Henry Moore a little bit sad and closed.
By Theo, www.artatsite.com
Vertaling
iets figuratiefs, bijna abstract
Dit kunstwerk is bijna geheel abstract. We zien een vorm met een verdikking in het midden. Aan éen kant is een opening met daarin twee cirkels doorsneden door een verticale vorm.
In mijn essays wil ik uitgaan van hetgeen ik zie, maar niet wat ik weet (zoals de titel). Bij Large Totem Head van Henry Moore heb ik mij stiekem laten helpen door de titel. Oh jah, nu zie ik een gezicht: twee ogen, een neus en misschien wel lang haar rondom het gezicht.
Ik vind het jammer dat het gezicht een treurige uitstraling heeft. De opening is relatief klein waardoor het kunstwerk een gesloten indruk maakt. Large Totem Head van Henry Moore vind ik een beetje treurig en gesloten.
Door Theo, www.artatsite.com
www.welt-der-form.net:
Henry Moore, *1898 Castleford, †1986 Much Hadham.
Large Totem Head, Grosser Totem, 1968.
Bronze, 244 cm hoch. Karolinenstrasse, Nürnberg.
Gestiftet von der Karstadt AG, 1979. Im selben Jahr aufgestellt.
www.tate.org.uk:
The form of this large sculpture draws on designs made by Moore in the 1930s that reflect his interest in the totemic symbolism of so-called ‘primitive’ art. It also relates to the artist’s preoccupation with hollowed, interior spaces, which developed in the 1950s. As the title indicates, the sculpture may be understood as a head, although the small maquette from which it originated was also described as a boat.
www.ysp.org.uk:
Large Totem Head is an upright bronze sculpture with a smooth curved back and a concave front bisected down the centre. This feature highlights the symmetrical qualities of the sculpture, which give it the appearance of an organic specimen, like a fruit sliced open.
Enlarged from a 1963 sculpture Head: Boat Form, this work combines organic and abstract elements. Although at first glance the simple curved forms of the sculpture may seem abstract and unfamiliar, when it is seen among the hills and trees of the Country Park its relationship to natural forms, such as seed pods and buds, becomes more apparent. This powerful, abstract head also stands as an emblem – or totem – in the landscape, commanding a view down and across the Country Park.
Henry Moore: "All art is abstract in one sense. Not to like abstract qualities or not to like reality, is to misunderstand what sculpture and art are about. Some artists are more visual, or get more excitement from nature in front of them, and then make a work of art from that. Other people do it from their insides, a more mental approach... But for me, I can’t cut my sculpture off from living, and the forms one see."
www.wikipedia.org:
Henry Spencer Moore Om Ch Fba Rbs (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. His forms are usually abstractions of the human figure, typically depicting mother-and-child or reclining figures. Moore's works are usually suggestive of the female body, apart from a phase in the 1950s when he sculpted family groups. His forms are generally pierced or contain hollow spaces. Many interpreters liken the undulating form of his reclining figures to the landscape and hills of his birthplace, Yorkshire. Moore was born in Castleford, the son of a coal miner. He became well-known through his carved marble and larger-scale abstract cast bronze sculptures, and was instrumental in introducing a particular form of modernism to the United Kingdom. His ability in later life to fulfill large-scale commissions made him exceptionally wealthy. Yet he lived frugally and most of the money he earned went towards endowing the Henry Moore Foundation, which continues to support education and promotion of the arts.
After the Second World War, Moore's bronzes took on their larger scale, which was particularly suited for public art commissions. As a matter of practicality, he largely abandoned direct carving, and took on several assistants to help produce the larger forms based on maquettes. By the end of the 1940s, he produced sculptures increasingly by modelling, working out the shape in clay or plaster before casting the final work in bronze using the lost wax technique. These maquettes often began as small forms shaped by Moore's hands—a process which gives his work an organic feeling. They are from the body. At his home in Much Hadham, Moore built up a collection of natural objects; skulls, driftwood, pebbles, rocks and shells, which he would use to provide inspiration for organic forms. For his largest works, he usually produced a half-scale, working model before scaling up for the final moulding and casting at a bronze foundry. Moore often refined the final full plaster shape and added surface marks before casting. Moore produced at least three significant examples of architectural sculpture during his career. In 1928, despite his own self-described"extreme reservations", he accepted his first public commission for West Wind for the London Underground Building at 55 Broadway in London, joining the company of Jacob Epstein and Eric Gill. In 1953, he completed a four-part concrete screen for the Time-Life Building in New Bond Street, London, and in 1955 Moore turned to his first and only work in carved brick, "Wall Relief" at the Bouwcentrum in Rotterdam. The brick relief was sculpted with 16,000 bricks by two Dutch bricklayers under Moore's supervision.
This artwork is almost completely abstract. We see a form with a bulge in the middle. On one side there is a opening with two circles bisected by a vertical form.
I want to base my essays on whatever I see, but not on what I do know (like the title). With Large Totem Head by Henry Moore I have been sneaky and was helped by the title. Oh yeah, now I can see a face: two eyes, a nose and perhaps long hair surrounding the face.
I found it a pitty that the face has a sad look. The opening is relatively small so the artwork makes a closed impression. I found Large Totem Head by Henry Moore a little bit sad and closed.
By Theo, www.artatsite.com
Vertaling
iets figuratiefs, bijna abstract
Dit kunstwerk is bijna geheel abstract. We zien een vorm met een verdikking in het midden. Aan éen kant is een opening met daarin twee cirkels doorsneden door een verticale vorm.
In mijn essays wil ik uitgaan van hetgeen ik zie, maar niet wat ik weet (zoals de titel). Bij Large Totem Head van Henry Moore heb ik mij stiekem laten helpen door de titel. Oh jah, nu zie ik een gezicht: twee ogen, een neus en misschien wel lang haar rondom het gezicht.
Ik vind het jammer dat het gezicht een treurige uitstraling heeft. De opening is relatief klein waardoor het kunstwerk een gesloten indruk maakt. Large Totem Head van Henry Moore vind ik een beetje treurig en gesloten.
Door Theo, www.artatsite.com
www.welt-der-form.net:
Henry Moore, *1898 Castleford, †1986 Much Hadham.
Large Totem Head, Grosser Totem, 1968.
Bronze, 244 cm hoch. Karolinenstrasse, Nürnberg.
Gestiftet von der Karstadt AG, 1979. Im selben Jahr aufgestellt.
www.tate.org.uk:
The form of this large sculpture draws on designs made by Moore in the 1930s that reflect his interest in the totemic symbolism of so-called ‘primitive’ art. It also relates to the artist’s preoccupation with hollowed, interior spaces, which developed in the 1950s. As the title indicates, the sculpture may be understood as a head, although the small maquette from which it originated was also described as a boat.
www.ysp.org.uk:
Large Totem Head is an upright bronze sculpture with a smooth curved back and a concave front bisected down the centre. This feature highlights the symmetrical qualities of the sculpture, which give it the appearance of an organic specimen, like a fruit sliced open.
Enlarged from a 1963 sculpture Head: Boat Form, this work combines organic and abstract elements. Although at first glance the simple curved forms of the sculpture may seem abstract and unfamiliar, when it is seen among the hills and trees of the Country Park its relationship to natural forms, such as seed pods and buds, becomes more apparent. This powerful, abstract head also stands as an emblem – or totem – in the landscape, commanding a view down and across the Country Park.
Henry Moore: "All art is abstract in one sense. Not to like abstract qualities or not to like reality, is to misunderstand what sculpture and art are about. Some artists are more visual, or get more excitement from nature in front of them, and then make a work of art from that. Other people do it from their insides, a more mental approach... But for me, I can’t cut my sculpture off from living, and the forms one see."
www.wikipedia.org:
Henry Spencer Moore Om Ch Fba Rbs (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. His forms are usually abstractions of the human figure, typically depicting mother-and-child or reclining figures. Moore's works are usually suggestive of the female body, apart from a phase in the 1950s when he sculpted family groups. His forms are generally pierced or contain hollow spaces. Many interpreters liken the undulating form of his reclining figures to the landscape and hills of his birthplace, Yorkshire. Moore was born in Castleford, the son of a coal miner. He became well-known through his carved marble and larger-scale abstract cast bronze sculptures, and was instrumental in introducing a particular form of modernism to the United Kingdom. His ability in later life to fulfill large-scale commissions made him exceptionally wealthy. Yet he lived frugally and most of the money he earned went towards endowing the Henry Moore Foundation, which continues to support education and promotion of the arts.
After the Second World War, Moore's bronzes took on their larger scale, which was particularly suited for public art commissions. As a matter of practicality, he largely abandoned direct carving, and took on several assistants to help produce the larger forms based on maquettes. By the end of the 1940s, he produced sculptures increasingly by modelling, working out the shape in clay or plaster before casting the final work in bronze using the lost wax technique. These maquettes often began as small forms shaped by Moore's hands—a process which gives his work an organic feeling. They are from the body. At his home in Much Hadham, Moore built up a collection of natural objects; skulls, driftwood, pebbles, rocks and shells, which he would use to provide inspiration for organic forms. For his largest works, he usually produced a half-scale, working model before scaling up for the final moulding and casting at a bronze foundry. Moore often refined the final full plaster shape and added surface marks before casting. Moore produced at least three significant examples of architectural sculpture during his career. In 1928, despite his own self-described"extreme reservations", he accepted his first public commission for West Wind for the London Underground Building at 55 Broadway in London, joining the company of Jacob Epstein and Eric Gill. In 1953, he completed a four-part concrete screen for the Time-Life Building in New Bond Street, London, and in 1955 Moore turned to his first and only work in carved brick, "Wall Relief" at the Bouwcentrum in Rotterdam. The brick relief was sculpted with 16,000 bricks by two Dutch bricklayers under Moore's supervision.