Henry Moore's Shelter Drawings are universally recognised as a key element of his oeuvre. However, these drawings should not be seen in isolation: this volume provides a highly readable account of the development of Moore's work as a draughtsman so providing a well-rounded discussion of this significant aspect of his artistic output. In 1953 Moore wrote, 'there is a general idea that sculptors' drawings should be diagrammatic studies, without any sense of background behind the object or of any atmosphere around it. 'And yet the sculptor is as much concerned with space as the painter'. This statement gains resonance in the pages of this book - it becomes clear that Moore's drawing often ran ahead of his sculpture and that at certain points he was exercising an almost parallel career exploring essentially pictorial ideas that were difficult or even impossible to realise in sculpture. Including a wealth of colour reproductions, "The Drawings of Henry Moore" balances first-class imagery with discussion of a range of fascinating themes such as the relationship between the sculptural and the pictorial and Moore's engagement with Surrealism and British Neo-Romanticism. For both scholars and enthusiasts, it is an essential resource.
