The White House Gallery

Henry Moore

HENRY MOORE 1898- 1986

Henry Moore was born in Castleford, in small terraced house in Roundhill Road on 30th July 1898. His early sculptures of the 1920s, show the influences of Central American pre-Columbian art, and the massive figures of the Italian Renaissance (he particualrly liked Michaelangelo's work). By the 1930s his works had become highly abstract, consisting of simplified, rounded pieces
carved from wood, with numerous indentations and holes often spanned with veils of thin metal wires. His main themes include mother-and-child and family groups, fallen warriors, and, most characteristically, the reclining human figure.

Although he endured much criticism of his early work, in 1948 he was awarded the International Prize for Sculpture and his reputation worldwide grew over the following decades..

He died in 1986 and in September 2000 Moore Square was opened on the site of his Castleford birthplace.