INVESTIGATING THE REPRESENTATION OF THE MOTHER AND CHILD THEME IN 20TH CENTUARY SCULPTURE.
The mother and child theme was one which was extremely important to Henry Moore in his sculptures and this sculpture Mother and Child of 1931 is yet another celebration of it. The subject is linked traditional theme of religious sculptures of the Madonna and child, which Henry Moore viewed on his travels to Italy. However Moore in this sculpture creates the message of maternity on a more universal level and gaining accessibility from those without the Christian faith. Moore as did other artists and sculptors of to the post-world war one era wished to reject complexity in there art which was commonly associated with fine art and reverted back to simple forms and primary emotions take from primitive and tribal art. This was known as evolutionary technique known as Primitivism relying on influences from tribal backgrounds and their art to encapsulate raw feeling and emotions. Artists and sculptures alike wished to focus their attention on things of vital importance to human life with or without the complexities of new technology and conflict which some associated with the modern day world.
With the Henry Moore mother and child I have chosen three additional sculptures of the 20th century which celebrate the maternal them with mother and child figures. Each achieves their sculpture using different methods and materials; however each one shows influences taken from primitive art. Two of the sculptures I have chosen I come in contact with on a day to day basis inside my school grounds I am unaware and unable to find out their dates and their titles. The third sculpture I will be investigating is a sculpture with the same title "mother and child" as Henry Moore's, it was made by Dame Barbara Hepworth and was accomplished in I chose this sculpture as she was a fellow student at Leeds art school with Henry Moore and it is interesting to see how they treat the same subject in similar and different ways.