Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 8 : Pressclippings, 1977-1981

y \' ti ti l .. , l ENRY MOORI with o stork sculpture repre– senting o men end o women. akesl)(!are. He taught isclf mining engineering 1 books and quallt1ed 10 ·nmc a manager. ·,ty mother wns to me • rock, absolute sln blhty. 11e was the opposite to I.he slt,untion or D. H. La\\'– rence, the no1·ellst, \\'hose lather v;es nlso a miner. But his fa ther was only concerned with his plc•– •urcs, drinking, cnrousln~ and womenlsmg. D. H. ·, ,l_ l'.; ..-,' Lawrence'• mother waa the intellectual one." He &&ya hls de1•ot10n to mother Is fundamentally expressed In his work, "All my figures are wom– en, really," he remarked quietly. Few honors remain to be bestowed on Moore. His honorary doctorates In• clude Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and Yale. He turned do\\''11 a knigh– thood In the fifties but ac– cepted the much rarer Or– der or Merit from the Queen last year. He had his reasons. "I couldn't accept a knighthood," he said. "If people go around •aylng 'Sir Henry• It makes )'OU think ol yourself aa a dif– ferent penon because you didn't begin that WRY, It took me two days to write a nice letter back to the au– thorities saying why I didn't wish to accept It". I asked him what hopes remained. "The hopes I have always had, to do some good •culpture work that satisfies some ambl• tlons. "That Is what mnkes a good writer, a good sculp– ll>r, a good musician. a good dancer, a good tennis player. or a good rootbeller. You want to produce whet nearly satisfies your nmbl– tlons. You can never be Ml,ls!led or you would stop". Henry Moore Is not retl– glous In the church-going sense Although when he was con!lrmert at the age or 15 In the Church of England. he walked down 1 he otslc reeling "a loot otr the ground". "I believe tha all artl1ta are rell•lo111 fundamental– ly.'' he said. Fo 11 ow l n g his happy chlldhood with a happy marriage, he and his wife, Irina, have lived many years In a 15th century house at Hoglands, near Much Hadham In Her– tfordshire. His only child, Mary, II a beloved Daughter. She la closely Involved with the Henry Moore Foundation set up last year when he handed over a vast collec– tlon or his sculpt.ure and the bulk of his 1uture eam– lngs to It. The vlllagers ot Much Hadham. where the price– less bequ~t stands In some 30 acres, are not entirely grllte(ul. They foresee some 100.000 visitors a year trampling their rural pcoce. Since many or his great bronzes should la,t up to 5000 years, future gener– ations 11111 be able to take all !he time In the world gett.tng to know Henry Moore and his genius. · r Mail The Courie 1978 July 28th,