Henry Moore: Shadows on the Wall

"I have always liked drawing, when you draw you see things more intensely." - Henry Moore.

Quite literally a little gem of an exhibition this, at the Courtauld Gallery. Its focus is on Henry Moore's Shelter Drawings from the Blitz period of 1940-1941, when the German Air Force bombarded the capital and Londoners sought refuge in Underground stations. The drawings appear to fall into two categories. Those attempting to describe the spaces of the underground, and those reportage-like, trying to depict a sense of the cost of the Blitz on those Londoners who weren't evacuated. Of the former, the thing that struck me immediately about these drawings was the sense of the theatrical. Many looked like ballet/theatre sets or studies for dioramas in which the figures are sculptural, static pawns awaiting their directions. Sculptor's drawings are always interesting in that they appear to be very solid, or convincingly portray a sense of volume in their subject. This exhibition examines Moore's depictions of walls as sculptural structures. Moore chooses to depict the space and the architecture of the tunnels as both hemming in and yet providing safety for those figures seeking refuge. The flat planes of the walls propping up weary figures and the circles and curved wall structures of the Underground tunnels leading off into voids of blackness are convincingly depicted. Being essentially a figurative sculptor Moore persuasively evokes the pathos of his figures plights through gesture, posture and grouping. The skilful use of line and colour also add to the sense of atmosphere and suffering described by the artist. The title of the exhibition Shadow on the Wall is taken from an Edward Sackville West play based on the return of Odysseus, Moore illustrated the published edition. Included in the exhibition is also a small model of a wall relief commission that the artist completed for a Dutch brick factory which he was required to complete in the brick medium, and a small maquette of a seated figure in front of a wall to emphasise the artist's interest in walled structures as foils to his sculpted figures. It is a good little exhibition, and another chance to see some great examples of an artists' preparatory and observational drawing so soon after those which featured in the recent Euan Uglow retrospective (here).

Henry Moore: Shadows on the Wall

until 22nd September

Somerset House

Strand

London

WC2R