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Henry Moore - Influences and Influenced

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Henry Moore holds a unique position within British Art as an artist whose legacy has impacted multiple generations. Antony Gormley has written of how 'Henry Moore gave back to sculpture a presence that it had lost in becoming a representation… I salute Moore's attempt to look deep into the syntax of sculpture and find possibilities that do not stem from the classical world'. Having created pieces that deal so directly with the universality of humankind and modernist form, Moore inspired not just sculptors but artists working across many mediums. Similarly to the Geometry of Fear group, contemporary artists have struggled with how to handle the work of an artist so at the forefront of the British art establishment. No matter the degree of abstraction, Moore's work always remained classical in its balance, form and contrapposto of the body, something which artists today have both utilised and fought against. Bruce McLean created a series of homages to Moore that humorously tried to escape the weight and power of Moore's imagery. In one set of photographs from 1969 entitled Fallen Warrior McLean playfully re-imagines himself fallen from Moore's sculptural pedestal. McLean described how it 'was made through a kind of playfulness and jokiness, but at the same time it has some admiration for Moore. I mean you only poke fun at things you have actually been moved by – by things you love or hate. I have a sneaky love for Henry Moore'. Although portraying the supposed universality of the body through abstracted form, Moore's reclining figures are decidedly female. With the female body having long been considered the stereotypical 'nude' throughout art, there has been a much-needed move to re-claim the body and remove gender stereotypes. Sarah Lucas plays between androgyny and stereotypes of femininity, and by using everyday materials re-evaluates how bodies are presented. Akin to Moore, she experiments with weight and physicality, yet rejects sentimentality and any notion of what 'femininity' is or should be. Moore's fame and reputation has not waned since his death in 1986. In 1977 he founded The Henry Moore Foundation, a world-renowned organisation which both propels the study of his works and supports that of other artists (an exhibition of Sarah Lucas' work Ordinary Things was held Henry Moore Institute in 2012). Exhibitions of his work have been held at major international galleries such as Tate Gallery, London; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington and Royal Academy of Arts, London. This degree of acclaim has made Moore a heralded figure and icon of British art, but as contemporary artists have proven, his work is not beyond reproach. Influences Today

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