Why did Henry Moore make sculptures?

Henry Moore created sculptures for a few reasons. Born in Castleford, Yorkshire, in 1898, he had an early interest in being a sculptor, and in 1921, he was awarded a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Art in London. As he would explain, this is where he was particularly inspired to pursue his sculpting practice: “Even when I was a student I was totally preoccupied by sculpture in its full spatial richness, and if I spent a lot of time at the British Museum in those days, it was because so much of the primitive sculpture there was distinguished by complete cylindrical realization.” He also had an interest in exploring how the human body connected to landscapes. He often produced works with specific locations in mind, considering how his figures would relate to the space around them. His forms are usually abstractions of the human body, typically depicting mother-and-child or reclining figures, and are often pierced or contain hollow spaces. Many interpreters liken the undulating form of his reclining figures to the landscape and hills of his Yorkshire birthplace. On 1stDibs, shop a variety of Henry Moore art.