Henry Moore

Henry Moore Land and Sea

Henry Moore Land and Sea is a multi-faceted education and exhibition project. Organised by Sculpture Exhibitions Limited in collaboration with the Château Musée de Dieppe, the project directly involves Lewes District and Town Councils; Charleston Gallery, Firle; Sussex Downs College; The Lycée-Émulation Dieppoise; both Thebes and Crypt Galleries in Lewes and Seaford respectively; and The Henry Moore Foundation.

Building on the warm relationship that exists between Lewes District and Dieppe, the project has been made possible through a grant from Interreg and from the generous support of local businesses, which have yet to be announced. The result of an application to Arts Council England South East for the exhibitions in Thebes and The Crypt is eagerly awaited.

Henry Moore has been acclaimed as Britain’s greatest sculptor of the twentieth Century. His international reputation grew through the profound humanity he expressed in his sculpture and the way it has spoken to communities across the globe. The exhibitions Henry Moore Land and Sea examines his sculpture and works on paper that have both direct and indirect reference to landscape and to the sea. The over-arching educational projects also take these themes and are developed with reference to Moore’s life and work.

Why Lewes and Dieppe? The Château Musée de Dieppe partnered the application to Interreg in 1999, which enabled Rodin in Lewes to take place. In 2001/02 the Château Musée participated in A Sculptor’s Development: Anthony Caro, taking the exhibition and developing its educational potential with the Lycée-Émulation Dieppoise. On this occasion further collaborations have been fostered, not only with the museum with which Lewes now has a well-developed working relationship, but also with Sussex Downs College, which broadens the scope and includes more young people in Anglo-French exchanges and direct collaboration.

Why Land and Sea? Henry Moore loved to see his sculpture placed in the landscape. He equally sought to draw parallels between human form and the shapes found in the landscape – rolling hills, craggy rocks and crevices, flints and stones, bones, cliff-faces, shells and drift-wood for example. This is just one way of engaging with the work of Moore, but one which is fitting for Lewes, surrounded by the rolling landscape of the South Downs, with its chalky terrain and flint inclusions; and Dieppe, as it is by the sea, its landscape bears similarities to that of East Sussex, and the collections of the Château Musée de Dieppe are based on objects and paintings with maritime themes.

Why Henry Moore? These occasional exhibitions held in Lewes Town Hall have featured major artists, and Henry Moore, like Rodin and Caro also referred to Classical art in some of his work. Moore admired Rodin and owned some of his small sculptures of dancers. There is also evidence of some correspondence between them. Anthony Caro was Henry Moore’s assistant for a time in the 1950s, and was greatly encouraged by Moore as a young artist. One of Moore’s early figure carvings was owned by Roland Penrose and stood in his garden in East Sussex for many years, and may be seen at The Henry Moore Institute, Leeds. Moreover, it seemed timely to look at Moore’s work afresh, and to question how younger audiences relate to his work, especially as he had no apparently direct following within successive generations.

Education

Sussex Downs College and the Lycée-Émulation Dieppoise are collaborating on an arts project based on Henry Moore Land and Sea. Outcomes will be a website built by the students, which will be used as a collaborative, creative tool, and sculptures made as the result of working together.

An Education specialist is to be appointed shortly who will work to encourage school visit to the exhibition.

The following external link goes to the Henry Moore Land and Sea exhibition details on the Henry Moore Foundation website
www.henry-moore-fdn.co.uk/matrix_engine/content.php?page_id=465