Mother and Child

Moore produced stringed sculptures only during a short period of time, from 1937 to 1940, inspired in part by the mathematical models he saw at the Science Museum in London. Despite its abstract vocabulary, the title of this sculpture, Mother and Child, aligns this work with a reoccurring subject within the artist’s oeuvre. The rounded, organic shapes within could variously suggest a head, an eye, a breast, or the fusing of the form of an infant to the left with the profile of a woman on the right, with the taut parallel strings providing a unifying element. An example of Moore’s complex sources, both in terms of subject matter and stylistic references, it also provides a pretext for the artist to carry out the formal juxtaposition of linearity against mass, and rounded against hollowed shapes that was typical of his production during this period.

© The Henry Moore Foundation. All Rights Reserved, DACS / SOCAN (2019) www.henry-moore.org