Page 62 - Studio International - September 1966

The artist speaks — when spoken to

Review article by Michael Ayrton

This* book is a clearly-ordered and well-illus-
trated collection of Henry Moore's writings, to-
gether with spoken words from him which have
been published from time to time since 1930. A
bibliography of these statements, comments and
interviews numbers sixty-three items, concerned
in the main with Moore's ideas about his own
work, his conception of the nature and materials
of sculpture and the influence certain styles and
masters of the past have had upon him. Because
Moore is a major artist, the autobiographical frag-
ments no less than the technical and aesthetic
views he expresses are instructive, and to have
them collected so that they record how he has
modified and changed his opinions over the years
makes this book valuable.
He began with the anti-Greek and anti-Renais-
sance bias common to avant-garde artists of his
generation, but unlike certain of our more simple-
minded contemporaries, who cannot admire
`primitive' sculpture without condemning other
traditions, he ceased to maintain this bias once he
came to recognize the relevance of Italy and
Greece. Again, he overstated the case for 'truth to
material' and then recognized the overstatement
as time passed. It is no surprise that he expresses
his views cogently and makes no bones about it
when he changes his mind, or rather he treats the
bones of his thought much as he does the actual
bones he handles, re-shapes and organizes them coherently and at any length about their work and ciplined pupils, that Constable's letters are even
into the forms of certain of his recent sculpture, principles. The journal of Delacroix and the more an exception than Van Gogh's or that
turning them about and considering them from letters of Van Gogh are exceptional documents.' Seurat's exposition of his method was incoherent?
different angles. This statement, in one version or another, has Are we to judge from Degas' letters and quoted
In 1937 Moore observed that the sculptor or long been so liberally buttered on the underside, epigrams that they were dragged from him or
painter should seldom speak or write about his slips so easily off the tongue in discussion and that Picasso's pungent comments were stammered
job, and perhaps this is one of the opinions he has slides so readily on to the typing paper that per- out or that Klee's didactic works are lacking in
modified, for he has spoken more frequently in haps it should be turned over and considered. fluency? Even such creators as Turner or Kandinsky,
recent years, courteously and perhaps unavoidably Firstly, perhaps we should add to the exceptions. in whom a certain incoherence has been remarked,
because he has frequently been spoken to. If so, we must include Polyclitus, Ictinus, and at least expressed themselves at copious length.
Mr James, in his introduction, rightly claims that Agatharcos as great creators among the many Clearly, some other explanation should be sought
almost anything a great artist says about art is whose lost treatises are quoted or referred to by for the ready acceptance Mr James must hope to
worth saying, and doubtless once a reputation as Vitruvius, Pliny and other ancient authors. Then win for his opening paragraph, and I think the
great as Moore's has been achieved, no one will we must include from the Renaissance the Corn- clue must lie not in the history of art but among the
deny it. On the other hand, it has been established mentari of Ghiberti, Piero della Francesca's two defences of art critics, for it is not that the artist
by convention that silence on the part of visual books on perspective and proportion, Leon cannot be coherent and fluent concerning his
artists is a cardinal virtue and if something must be Battista Alberti on painting and sculpture as well work and principles, it is that critic and connois-
said, then the most blundering, muddle-headed as architecture, Leonardo's Paragon, apart from seur alike would much prefer him not to be. It is only
exposition of intention is to be preferred, some the notebooks, Michelangelo's Dialoghi with because an artist as celebrated as Moore has had
`statement' confused enough to prove that the Francisco d'011anda and Dürer's written work. so much said about him, that he may be permitted
speaker is a real visual artist and therefore inarti- Mr James, however, suggests not only that the to get a few words in without disapproval.
culate. Let him who speaks too clearly or too soon great creators in the history of art did not write, In a review in The Times Literary Supplement of a
beware. I should know. He cannot be taken but he goes so far as to suggest that they had a new book on Moore by Sir Herbert Read, Sir
seriously. The opening sentence of Mr James' positive aversion to 'expressing' themselves fluently Herbert is described as 'the most diffident of
introduction establishes this: 'In general,' he says, and coherently and at any length as to their work authors... yet he finds it impossible not to occupy
`the history of art shows that the great creators... and principles. Are we then to suppose, for half of the bibliography printed in this volume'. It
have considerable difficulty in and indeed a posi- instance, that Rubens found such expression is no wonder that the artist had best hold his peace,
tive aversion to expressing themselves fluently, difficult, that Poussin's letters and observations on else how can the Boswells of the visual arts ever
painting, as published, contain more than a tithe come to rank with the Johnsons ?
*Henry Moore on sculpture, edited by Philip James of his obiter-dicta, that Hogarth was averse to `Where are the pictures?' inquires a connoisseur,
294 pages, 124 monochrome illustrations, 4 colour writing The Analysis of Beauty, that Ingres was in Brideshead Revisited, of an artist he meets in the
plates, Macdonald, London, £6 6s. tongue-tied in the presence of his rigorously dis- entrance to his one-man show. 'Let me explain