Henry Moore
During these meetings with Henry Moore, he told me various
stories about his life and work. Some of which I already knew from literature
on him and his work. So without intending
to do so, he actually verified those to be a fact. Some
things though were new to me. He told me about
his meeting, at the unveiling of the Rotterdam Bouwcentrum wall, with that
'chubby princess' - "what was her name again?" he
asked Irina. I did not know then that years later I would get to know
Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands personally.
my book signed by Moore in Forte dei Marmi, Italy
But also he
talked about his problems with the pebbles and flint stones
he had collected at the ocean side all his life
- which he just saved or used as sculpture, carving some. The salt in
them, or whatever the cause was, was slowly disintegrating
them. Having read about and very much appreciating the gardens and environments
Isamu Noguchi had done, Moore's ideas about sculpture struck me as rather
conservative. In his opinion it was very important that a sculptor incorporated
his personal sculptural elements in his environmental work; in this
sense, he found that Noguchi went beyond what was acceptable
to him.
Looking back now I think that I didn't realize at that time
that Moore had been around a long time already and had earned a right
to his views. He had changed the course of art history himself and had
introduced things which were revolutionary in his time. The environmental
work I was doing at that time did, in fact, have sculptural elements
which I shaped myself. In my first garden -
DSW - the transparent fountain forms were indeed sculpted by me.
He appreciated that and encouraged me to continue in this direction.
It was probably due to Henry Moore's incentive that I made the bronze
element the way I did in my
Walburg project a year later."
Having read about and very much appreciating the gardens and environments
Isamu Noguchi had done, Moore's ideas about sculpture struck me as rather
conservative. In his opinion it was very important that a sculptor incorporated
his personal sculptural elements in his environmental work; in this
sense, he found that Noguchi went beyond what
was acceptable to him. Looking back now I think that I didn't realize
at that time that Moore had been around a long time already and had
earned a right to his views. He had changed the course of art history
himself and had introduced things which were revolutionary in his time.
The environmental work I was doing at that time did, in fact, have sculptural
elements which I shaped myself. In my first garden -
DSW
- the transparent fountain forms were indeed sculpted by me. He appreciated
that and encouraged me to continue in this direction. It was probably
due to Henry Moore's incentive that I implemented the bronze element the way
I did in my
Walburg project a year later."
Lucien den Arend
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