Henry Moore: Prints and Portfolios

This major exhibition of prints, etchings and drawings explores the stories behind Moore’s graphic work in lavish detail and reveals his connections to literature.

Henry Moore: Prints and Portfolios displays many pieces of the Castleford-born artist’s work for the first time in Yorkshire, and provides a new insight into the genesis of Moore’s ideas.

Henry Moore’s interest in printmaking began after the First World War and continued until the end of his life. It formed an increasingly important part of Moore’s work from the 1970s, when he worked with specialist printers and publishers internationally to meet a growing demand for his work.

These exquisite and highly collectable editions, the focus of this exhibition, form an important part of The Henry Moore Foundation’s collection of works on paper by the artist.

Many of the etchings and lithographs in these deluxe publications were conceived to accompany the work of selected poets – W H Auden, Stephen Spender, Charles Baudelaire and Lawrence Durrell, for example – or to illustrate the work of writers such as Shakespeare, Dante, and André Gide.

Others were assembled as part of group tributes to artists including Picasso, Max Ernst, Joan Miró and Mark Rothko. In some cases, the books are dedicated to exploring subjects that had preoccupied the artist as a special interest, such as Elephant Skull, Stonehenge, The Artist’s Hand, Mother and Child, and Trees.

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